is my 100 point drop a normal thing?!?!

Test Preparation
21

<p>
[quote]
in fact, at the schools whose admissions processes i know about, the decision-makers won't even see the order of the scores, or how many times you took the test.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No selective school is known to censor credentials out of the application before admissions readers have the opportunity to see them. You may be thinking of what the formal admissions committee sees on summary sheets or cards about the files that survive the initial readings. The first few readers of the file see the whole score report. Search on CC or the web for the explanation of this distinction at Yale, from then-admissions director Margit Dahl; the final committee (for the half or third of applicants that get there) sees a printout with just the highest scores, but the readers prior to that point see everything. The readers of the file write notes and can present at the committee whatever they found relevant in the application. The readers also assign academic ratings to the applicant, so the test score pattern (beyond just highest scores) has at least the potential to influence the result.</p>

<p>But if you have more detailed information about the practice at specific schools, please do post it!</p>

22

<p>i searched the forum and the internet for margit dahl. i couldn't find an explicit statement to this effect:</p>

<p>"The first few readers of the file see the whole score report. Search on CC or the web for the explanation of this distinction at Yale, from then-admissions director Margit Dahl; the final committee (for the half or third of applicants that get there) sees a printout with just the highest scores, but the readers prior to that point see everything."</p>

<p>i found a transcript of an online discussion with dahl that included this statement:</p>

<p>"Margit Dahl: Someone reading your file sees all scores sent by the College Board. But the computer program used to print reports for the admissions committee selects, and prints, the highest of any individual test type--SAT verbal, SAT math, subject tests (SAT IIs)--even if they were from different test dates. This year we will print both old and new, highest by each test type."</p>

<p>[ <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8927829/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8927829/site/newsweek/&lt;/a> ]</p>

<p>the yale web site also says:</p>

<p>"In evaluating SAT or ACT results, does Yale consider scores from previous test dates?</p>

<p>"Yes, in the sense that readers of the application will see all of the test results that are in your file, since you are asked to self-report your scores from all test dates. The formal admissions committee that meets to vote on applications, however, will see <b>only the highest score</b> you received on any individual test, if you have repeated any of the tests. For the SAT I, the admissions committee will consider the highest score from each of the test's three sections. For the ACT, the admissions committee will consider the highest composite score."</p>

<p>[ <a href="http://www.yale.edu/admit/faq/applying.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/admit/faq/applying.html&lt;/a> (emphasis in original)]</p>

<p>these statements, taken together, suggest that the application exists in its entirety somewhere, and that readers of the application in its entirety would be able to see all the test scores, but that the people who make the decision("the formal admissions committee that meets to vote on applications") receive "print[ed] reports" with "the highest of any individual test type--SAT verbal, SAT math, subject tests (SAT IIs)--even if they were from different test dates." to conclude that decisions are made based on all testing data would require us to interpose a layer of review before the "formal admissions committee that meets to vote on applications" that has the power to remove applicants from consideration. if such a review body exists, i haven't seen it referred to in my (admittedly brief) research, and dahl didn't mention such a layer of review in her q-and-a.</p>

23

<p>Most schools indeed have a multi-stage procedure that allows rejection decisions to be made prior to the formal admission committee. From the Yale Daily News, Feb 16, 2005:</p>

<p>
[quote]
The process, the former admissions officer said, typically begins with a student's admissions folder. The officer assigned to that student's geographical area will read the folder and make comments on a card, and then he or she will often pass the folder on to an "outside," or second, reader. The admissions process culminates with a folder's trip to the admissions committee. Sitting around a table in the admissions office, three or four admissions officers make or break the futures of applicants.</p>

<p>"You go through ... and you call out each name and you vote thumbs up or thumbs down," the former admissions officer said, noting that most applicants who are vetoed by the geographical admissions officer do not even get discussed.</p>

<p>"Only the kids that you want to talk about actually get talked about and have their application discussed," the officer said. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/13301%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/13301&lt;/a>

[/quote]
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<p>At Harvard: "Between 5,000 and 7,000 applicants proceed to... the full committee meeting, in which all 35 admissions officers debate and vote on who will make the final cut."
<a href="http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/keys_to_the_kingdom/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/keys_to_the_kingdom/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>At Amherst: "The process began in the fall. Every application was read at least twice. By the time the 11-member admissions committee met in March, they'd already eliminated half the applicants."
<a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june04/merrow_6-22.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june04/merrow_6-22.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Vanderbilt FAQ outlining their admissions process:
<a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/applySelection.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/applySelection.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>MIT:
<a href="http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/visualize_whirled_peas.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/visualize_whirled_peas.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This is also described in the admissions books by Chuck Hughes (Harvard), Michelle Hernandez (Dartmouth), Rachel Toor (Duke), and in *The Gatekeepers<a href="Wesleyan">/i</a>. </p>

<p>Almost every school has some funneling process where applicants can be rejected before the committee stage, and at every school the readers who precede the committee produce applicant ratings and written notes based on whatever they find of interest in the file. This is well-known to CC readers.</p>

<p>What is not known are examples of schools where "the decision-makers won't even see the order of the scores, or how many times you took the test.". If you know of such examples please do post them, I think many people here would be interested.</p>