<p>Here's a newly-minted video to help you pass the time while you wait to hear from the Admission Office. </p>
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<p>Personally, I like the detail(pun intended) of the Smith security officer!</p>
<p>I thought it was very cute. It put a smile on my face :)</p>
<p>It made me laugh. I liked how they had a disclaimer-type thing at the end. Also the dance.</p>
<p>^ haha, me too. “They’re in! They’re in! They’re in!”</p>
<p>A little fun is good! :)</p>
<p>so if ur area admission officer likes u, u go the the main board? not all applications go there?</p>
<p>Luluzg, this was just a video to show the basic process and what they look for. But most admissions committee are composed of regional admissions officers and the Director of Admissions (and sometimes an Assistant Director.) Even though the officers are regional reps – that is, they specialize by knowing the high schools in their region – they work on site. Regional reps screen the applicants from their assigned geographical range to pull the strongest applicants out of the pile. When they go to committee, then they advocate for their strongest applicants. All the officers discuss each applicant in greater length than you saw in the video, with all asking questions and discussing finer points. In many cases (I don’t know that this happens at Smith), the committee accepts the “no-brainer” cases from all the regions, then proceeds to the borderline cases, which can take much longer. The Director of Admissions must approve each acceptance. If your regional rep thinks that you are a weak prospect, especially compared to the others applying from that region, then you don’t have a good chance of getting in.</p>
<p>well, it’s not just if she likes you, it’s if she thinks you’re qualified. It seemed like the purpose of the first two screenings (in the video) was to see 1) do you have the raw profile that fits our student profile (grades, ECs, etc), then 2) what does your information mean in context of your country or area (that’s why they have the area officers read the files, because presumably they’re familiar with the schools in their areas, as well as relevant competitions and other info) and then 3) they take you to the committee where they will deliberate on the chosen apps. And actually, I think there’s a second review between steps two and three that goes on. An admissiosn officer once told me that no fewer than three officers read every application, and also that they read it more than once (even though they obviously couldn’t show that in the video).</p>
<p>Thanks a lot Smithie and Mom! :)</p>
<p>EDIT: I know internationals have their own admission officer but what if the candidate comes from an unknown, i.e. underrepresented area? For example, I come from an IB school but from a country that has a little over 4.5 million people and I’m pretty sure we are underrepresented. Im not sure whether the officers are well acquainted with my school (has app 35 ppl in each generation). Does it really matter or they rely onto counsellor’s report about the school?</p>
<p>You would be surprised. Even if you come from a small country, you probably have an admissions officer who is assigned to your geographic region. Regional officers cover more than one area. So for example, there might be one regional officer assigned to cover the Western United States, and another assigned to cover Middle Eastern countries, etc. I bet there’s someone assigned to cover your region even if they don’t focus just on your one country. </p>
<p>Anyway, if they aren’t familiar with your school, they’ll at least be familiar with IB curriculums in general, and since those are more standardized, they’ll look at those. And coming from an underrepresented country is usually a plus, there will be fewer students competing against you from your same country, and Smith is always interested in bringing in students from countries that don’t usually contribute students (Afghanistan and Mongolia come to mind).</p>