<p>I've heard admissions counselors look at applicants in stages, the first of which being the academic stage, where they see if you're qualified for the college's academics. My questions are: how are student's gauged in this stage? do adcoms look thoroughly at a students classes and transcript? I know GPA, rank, and rigor is considered, but how in depth do they go in this portion? </p>
<p>what do you mean “how in depth”’?
If admissions are holistic:
They write down whether you had 5 core classes every year/semester; honors or regular (honors would be expected for the very/highly/most selective colleges); how many APs (6-8 and you’re good IF your school offers a lot - if you school offers 2-4 only you must take them all); whether your schedule is considered “most rigorous”; class rank (top 10%?); GPA (sometimes it’s recalculated, taking away health, PE, etc); whether you got A/A-s in your core classes or not; whether you got D’s or F’s (made up? special circumstances? addressed in GC’s rec, ie., death of a parent, illness/hospitalization, foster home situation… vs. “didn’t take classes seriously yet”?); SAT/ACT score (2100/32+? for top schools, 2000’s? for very selective ones); SAT2 scores (if required/provided); AP scores (if provided).
All of this goes onto a summary card and has to be done in about 5mn.</p>
<p>If admissions are not holistic, as is the case at most State Universities:
GPA X SAT/ACT score (at flagships: with a look at whether you took 2-5 APs and if your classes were Honors); GPA counts more than SAT/ACT score, but SAT/ACT score is factored in more heavily for scholarships than for admissions.</p>
<p>This probably changes with each college/university. So far, the few colleges we visited claimed to use the “holistic” model. Swarthmore even went as far to say they read the essays first and test scores last. BUT they do look at the test scores to make sure their impression drawn from the essays match the scores. Course rigor and grades were definitely important. In other words, no matter how in-depth a college may look in evaluating applications, a cut-off may still exist and it doesn’t matter if it happens upfront or at the end.</p>
<p>In holistic admissions, the most important thing they are going to be looking at is whether or not you can be expected to be able to do the work at their school. It may vary by school, but there are basically three or four categories they can put you in, best summarized as YES!, Yes, Maybe, and No. Most acceptances will come from the YES! and Yes piles, a few from the Maybe pile, and a very few from the No pile. Note that once you’re in these piles, the fine differences between two students don’t really matter - a 2400 SAT is the same as a 2310, a 4.0 with 4 APs is the same as a 3.85 with 7 APs. Then the other factors start to come into play - ECs, essays, letters of rec, intended major, demonstrated interest, URM, geographic balancing, etc. (FWIW, athletes are judged in a separate process at some schools, so they have different factors.)</p>
<p>It’s all a different formula for every school, but they all follow a form of this process, even if they do in in different order. Some will stop evaluating at some point, others will take you through every step. And when it gets down to the very end, they may look again and take the 7 APs over the 4 APs, or the 3.92 over the 3.85 - but that’s all known only to the admission staff at each school. So you do your best and send it in.</p>