Order of Review for Application

Do college admission officers read the common app (activities, awards, additional information etc.) before the Common App Essay and supplemental essays? What about the supplemental files (art or research portfolios). Is this the case for the Coalition or UC applications?

Depends on the AO. I would guess most read the application first.

In most cases, the arts/research supplements are not reviewed by the AO
A percentage will be sent to the academic department for comment. Most won’t see the light of day.

@skieurope Okay, thanks for the information. So what would make AOs send your supplements to reviewers or what would make them not send it? For T20s, is the percentage low?

I don’t know that any college quantifies the percentage. I know that several colleges - Yale and Penn come to mind- have said it’s a low percentage.

My guess is that they only forward those from applicants they are seriously considering, but are on the bubble. As it is not a professor’s main job to evaluate supplements, admissions will likely not waste the professor’s time by sending supplements with no chance of admissipn or who would likely be admitted without the supplement.