<p>No one has ever asked me, "What's the hardest part of making admissions decisions?" And while the work of reading applications and engaging with my colleagues in committee is exciting and gratifying, it can be draining both emotionally and intellectually. Having participated in several days of committee already, I hope you'll indulge me as I unload a few thoughts that had been swimming through my head.</p>
<p>But to answer the questions previously unasked: the biggest challenge I have is saying no to students I love. I've mentioned before on these boards how much I grow to adore our applicants and how I we work to put together a class of students worthy of that affection, but that love bumps up against reality over and over again throughout the process. Our Freshman class should hover around 1,300 humans large, but the number of qualified applicants we have is much more numerous than that. The number of qualified applicants with great applications is much more numerous than that.</p>
<p>Earlier today, and again tomorrow (yes, we work on weekends), I sat in and will sit in a room with 4-6 of my admissions peers and we will go through the brilliantly exciting process of admitting next years freshman class. I will thrill when we admit the philosopher who uses fractal math to create religious images or the girl who claims writing with mechanical pencils is like bringing a laser pistol to a sword fight. </p>
<p>But that kind of sheer unadulterated awesomeness brims in our pool of applicants. And I know that I will frequently be in a position where committee will have to deny wonderful people admission - students whose applications I read and adored. But that's my love crashing into our reality - so many great people, so few spaces. </p>
<p>And let me tell you: that sucks. </p>
<p>I'm writing this not to stress any of you out, but because I need you to know that your greatness, your worth, and your potential or not somehow instantly diminished or expanded by an admissions decision. Reading about so many of you is inspiring and constantly pushes me to learn more about the world. I'm grateful for that, and as decisions are released all over the country, I wish you luck.</p>
<p>It’s good to know that at least some admissions folks aren’t looking for reasons to reject us. Thanks for the post, and I look forward to sending you an amusing application :).</p>
<p>Adcoms at the most selective schools must play God one quarter a year. They divine out of myriad applications those few “worthy” of selection. Possessing omniscience, we grant them infallibility. How else are they able to tease out so finely the uniqueness and see the magnificience of 18-year olds needed to shape their perfect class – and get away with it? </p>
<p>Dan is a fallen angel overcome with guilt, asking of us expiation. But atonement is not possible with a system so patently unfair. We are humans, not gods. We should rather have a true admisssions lottery, acknowleging formally the randonmess of the process and thus take the highly fallible human out of the game. </p>
<p>It would work simply. </p>
<p>Establish a cut-off on standardized scores and grades. Students above this theshold would be randomly allocated to one of say the top 50 schools in the US, without preference given to type of school or geography. The system would be programmed to ensure requisite diversity across instituitions. A system such as this would move us away from the “narcissism of small differences” practiced by all top schools and relieve people like Dan of a burden too heavy to carry.</p>
<p>^ All I can say is… that would seem a little communistic for me AND at some level it would probably succumb to bribery and God knows what!</p>
<p>This said, I can’t help but conclude that my son’s application (as I saw it) probably never made it to the AdCom table for discussion! And to be honest, if the admitted student population fits more with the fractal math kind of guy, well… I wonder what it was about Tufts that led my son to see himself being very happy there?</p>
<p>Of course, the whole admission’s game is going to reverse in just a few weeks…</p>
<p>I often hear that in order to get into Tufts applicants really need a really high SAT score. Does it mean that students with low SAT scores have no chance of getting in? </p>
<p>I am from LA, Cali and I know one of my friends came to the US only a year ago. He is smart and diligent worker but whenever he takes the SAT for some reason he can’t top the 1600 barrier(out of 2400). He is in the top 3% of our graduating class. </p>
<p>Would you say that he has any chance of getting into Tufts despite his bad SAT score??? How much Tufts care about the SAT?</p>
<p>By the way, How many students Tufts is going to accept this year? I heard that the total number of applicants for this year is around 16000 and there had been about 12% rise in the Early decision 1 acceptances.</p>
<p>Thanks Dan for all of your help in this process I mentioned this in another thread that you might not have read, so I’ll say it again - I told my Tufts interviewer how grateful I (and all of these CC peers checking the Tufts forum as anxiously as I do) am to you for updating us and keeping us informed throughout this crazy time in our lives. I hope that was relayed to you!</p>
<p>Dan, thank you very much for that sincere, genuine, and wholehearted post. It’s really wonderful to see that some adcoms are truly human, and not just machines who love to dash the dreams of 17-year-olds across the world.
I think with the Tufts application, more than any other, I truly put my ENTIRE self into the essays. With prompts like “Who are you?” and “Seventeen Years Ago” I really had fun.
I hope you enjoying read my essays as much as I enjoyed writing them :)</p>
<p>BalletGirl-
I think your proposal would have us go from a necessarily imperfect system to a disastrous one. First, it ignores the enormous differences in atmosphere and an applicant’s sense of “fit” with a given institution by focusing only on the academic quality of a school. It’s ignoring that a student who might love Dartmouth or Middlebury might be woefully unhappy at a Northwestern or UChicago, even though the academic quality of these schools is pretty close. Second, it ignores the very thing that AdComs work so hard to accomplish - not just creating a class of “smart” kids, because that would be easy, but creating a diverse and interesting class that by its very nature improves the overall college experience (which includes inside and outside the classroom) for its members.</p>
<p>Modadunn-
I think the fractal math guy was just an example of an interesting applicant utilized by Dan to make his point. I do not think it is a portrait of a typical member of the admitted student population at Tufts (at least I hope not, because I didn’t even know what fractal math was until I just looked it up!). I know several kids admitted to Tufts who are just nice, smart, fun and interesting kids with very diverse objectives and backgrounds. As for what attracted your son to Tufts, I suspect it was the very atmosphere of nice, smart, fun and interesting kids which the AdCom puts together in a comfortable, engaging, stimulating, mid-sized academic environment just outside of Boston and Cambridge. I think that’s why my kid chose it.</p>
<p>WCASParent – First, my proposal would, in fact, change the character of each school (God forbid) so this indulgent and narcississtic notion of “fit” and school “exceptionalism” would fade away. What would happen, instead, is that students would have to adapt to the school they ended up at and, potentially, confront real difference (an important aspect of education, no?). The overall quality of the student body at the top institutions would improve and be more evenly distributed. This approach would reduce costly recruiting, marketing and admission expenses so that funds could be reinvested in financial aid and academics. This is, by the way, how top students are allocated in many other advanced countries such as England, France and Japan. </p>
<p>Second, if you’ve bought the line that adcoms can, through their infinite wisdom, shape the perfect class from a application pool of 18 year olds than I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.</p>
<p>I’m just dropping in to say… I really liked doing the Tufts application. There’s so much space to be you! But Dan, I have a question… what happens when you fall in love with all these different kids? How can you decide between them?</p>
<p>My guess is that the answer to the question that inconspicuous.s.n. asked is that Tufts trys to allocate its “love” to those students who will love them back and reward them by accepting their offer of admission. That is a very sticky wicket to navigate.</p>
<p>BalletGIrl-
As for my first point, NOTHING could change the feel of a Dartmouth or a Middlebury so that a kid who loved the very different atmospheres of a atmosphere of a Northwestern or a Chicago would be as happy (or vice versa).<br>
As for my second point, I didn’t say “perfect.” I said a “diverse and interesting” class.</p>
<p>But whatever any of you say I will bet that all the prestigious schools including Tufts (except BU, Brown and Harvard) don’t accept students who has lower SATs even if they have high gpa. </p>
<p>I think that shows how much “DIVERSITY” really those schools wants? They say they want diversity but most of the time they only want students with more than 1900 SAT, perfect GPA and a well written essay. Other than that a students who has a SAT lets say at 1700, 3.8 or B+gpa and good essay will not be accepted at those prestigious schools no matter how much diversity he/she can bring on the table.</p>
<p>That’s because they’re not JUST looking for kids that bring “diversity”, which is a pretty vague idea. Generally, though, those kids don’t get in because there are students with higher scores/grades that bring as much or more to the table in terms of “diversity” or other unquantifiable qualities.
And even a 1900 SAT is (comparatively) pretty low; it’s not like they’re only taking kids above 2300.</p>
<p>WCASParent: Yes, that would be exactly why my kid liked it. And honestly, I think he really liked his tour guide who shared what it was about Tufts that he had been looking for… not too big, not too small… not too urban, not too rural. It definitely was what I call a goldilocks moment in it being just right. As for the fractal math… you did one better than me because I didn’t even bother to look it up!</p>
<p>The clock is ticking oh so loudly around here.</p>
<p>Starting next week, I’m camping out at my mailbox after school! I’m trying to send some good karma in the Boston direction… Tufts is my first choice. :)</p>
<p>I thought admission counselors at prestigious universities like Tufts are “robots” and they like to make people cry. But this post shows how “human” they are and how they are not completely different than us. Well written Dan.</p>
I mentioned this in another thread that you might not have read, so I’ll say it again - I told my Tufts interviewer how grateful I (and all of these CC peers checking the Tufts forum as anxiously as I do) am to you for updating us and keeping us informed throughout this crazy time in our lives. I hope that was relayed to you!</p>