<p>Making</a> the grade: Inside the college admissions process</p>
<p>While this only applies to Lehigh, and other schools small enough to do admissions on this level of individuality, it is a very interesting look at the intangibles of admissions.</p>
<p>Very interesting article, I read it in today’s paper</p>
<p>I don’t like stories that have too many personally identifying details about applicants. That guidance counselor who told the admissions office that the applicant was extremely rude probably feels uncomfortable right now - those comments should remain confidential so that people feel free to speak honestly.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting it – very interesting. I don’t think I ever heard that not opening the portal was a red flag. Good to know.</p>
<p>I bet at large state schools they just look at your GPA and ACT/SAT scores.</p>
<p>Interesting, and a valuable read for HS juniors. Once you apply, open your online portal to check the status of your application - otherwise the college will assume you don’t care!</p>
<p>I recognized the bit about the applicant who served three years in the Israeli Army. He is a poster on CC as I read his chance me thread yesterday, unless there are two people in his position who applied to Lehigh, which I doubt.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to read the weight that a campus visit had in the deliberation process.</p>
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<p>Why are reporters have such a problem with numbers and adjectives. Lehigh is neither highly selective nor should consider a SAT score of 1300 as its low end. That is the average score of its enrolled students. </p>
<p>Did not bother reading more after that misguided opening line.</p>
<p>Especially interesting about the visiting. I posted recently that my H and I were joking that the last school we heard from was the one that D didn’t ‘officially’ visit. We went to the campus one day but didn’t register for a tour</p>
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While you’re correct about the 1300 not being in its low end, Lehigh only admitted 32% of applicants. Coupled with its middle 50% SATs (CR/M) ranging from 1200-1400, I think it’s safe to classify Lehigh as a highly selective institution.</p>
<p>Considering that the average US 4 year non-profit college admits 64% of its applicants, and Lehigh admits only half that percentage, I think that qualifies as “highly selective,” regardless of what labels USNWR or anyone else comes up with.</p>
<p>Nope and nope. </p>
<p>Lehigh might be selective, but not highly selective.</p>
<p>And, by the way, is a 1200-1400 SAT 50 percent not the same as a … 1300 average/median score?</p>
<p>I think us news calls lehigh most selective. There is no absolute definition as far as I know.</p>
<p>I found this article and video very interesting.</p>
<p>This might only be for Lehigh, but it seems that the three most important things to the admissions team are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Grades/Rank</li>
<li>SAT/ACT scores</li>
<li>Interest shown to the school (NOT EC ACTIVITIES)</li>
</ol>
<p>Now this might have been due to editing of the piece, but it never seemed like a students EC activities was a deciding factor or even important in the discussions. The only exception was the one applicant that had 500 hours of community service.</p>
<p>I also didn’t realize how important INTEREST in the school played. It seems that schools want to offer admissions to students that WILL attend not just the best student. </p>
<p>Therefore, it seems that students need to start showing interest in any way they can, without stalking. </p>
<p>I wonder if students should start visiting schools earlier in their high school career. I was going to start offering to take my sons to schools during the junior year and of course get serious during the summer after junior year to see what schools to apply to. Now maybe they should start after sophomore year. Of course sending a thank you to the school for allowing him to visit will be a must.</p>
<p>Plus, the kids need to realize senior year is still important and they need to keep up their grades.</p>
<p>Lehigh is unlike most other schools of its caliber in that interest is an important consideration for freshmen admissions. By contrast, class rank, important to many Lehigh esque institutions is only considered. <a href=“http://www.lehigh.edu/~oir/cds/lucds2012.htm[/url]”>http://www.lehigh.edu/~oir/cds/lucds2012.htm</a></p>
<p>fflmaster–I think the significance of an applicant’s level of interest will vary from school to school. You can look at a school’s Common Data Set and verify on the Visiting pages of the Admissions section of each school’s website. My sense, as a parent going through this process for the first time, is that large schools do not give much, if any, consideration to expressed interest. Exceptions would be smaller programs within larger universities. Schools the size of Lehigh, and smaller, often do value expressed interest. </p>
<p>If your sons do not have time to visit this spring and would like to start expressing interest and learning more about colleges, many schools have regional admissions counselors’ contact info listed on the school’s website. Or, your sons could start by responding to some of those emails that resulted from the PSAT.</p>
<p>College websites offer an enormous amount of information about majors, minors, course sequence, etc. All of this info can help to narrow the focus for the visits. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^^whenhen, this is the third time I have heard from a report saying how schools are putting more and more importance on showing interest. </p>
<p>After one time I could say it’s just that school. After the second time I thought well these schools are less selective schools. But this was the first time I heard this from a selective school. </p>
<p>I have to start thinking this is going to grow to others. I am not saying interest is going to play much in the ivies or something of that caliber, but it seems interest is playing a larger roll then I thought.</p>
<p>Do others disagree? How about those in the application mode?</p>
<p>Did interest play any role in the acceptances you got?</p>
<p>We live in California. S applied to Lehigh. The invitation for the local event arrived the evening before the actual event! It wasn’t possible for him to attend. In addition, the Lehigh representative was at his HS while S was on a 3 day retreat. So, his level of interest consisted of portal access and some website inquiries. He was wait listed. Would he have attended…we will never know. Many families hold off on visiting geographically distant campuses until after acceptance. It is just not financially prudent to incur the travel costs.</p>
<p>The HS Naviance account shows only 1 student has attended Lehigh in the past 5 years. I wonder if the Lehigh will decrease their acceptances because of very low yield from this particular HS. If this pattern holds for other geographically remote HS’ then it is an infinite loop for both Lehigh and applicants.</p>
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<p>Common data sets or [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) do reveal whether “level of applicant’s interest” is considered and how important it is at each college, so you can craft your “show interest” strategy appropriately for the schools on your application list.</p>
<p>Lehigh considers “level of applicant’s interest” to be “important”, while “academic GPA” and “class rank” are only “considered”; only “rigor of secondary school record” and “recommendations” are “very important” to Lehigh. It may not be all that representative of colleges in general as far as how they weigh various criteria.</p>
<p>Indeed, it is often thought that selective but not super-selective (usually private) schools tend to be most likely to consider “level of applicant’s interest”, in that they do not like being used as safeties by students who are unlikely to attend.</p>