<p>Mollie (or Chris) can you explain exactly how the committee process works? Specifically, I'm wondering how many times a student application will get reviewed (or, put another way, if a student provided a site url, how many times can they expect to get hits from Cambridge on it?) and if there is an "accept" or "promising" pile that slowly fills up during the first few weeks. </p>
<p>For example, from the perspective of a single application, what's its route through the process before/during committee?</p>
<p>Thanks as always!</p>
<p>There are some good links at the end of this description that are quite thorough: [The</a> Selection Process | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/process/selection]The”>Our selection process | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>I can’t tell you exactly how it works, but I can give the process to the best of my knowledge. 
</p>
<p>After applications are complete, they are read by several application readers. As each reader finishes a stack of applications, he or she turns them back in for another stack, so an application that’s read early in the process by one reader will be read later in the process by others. I’m not sure how many times each application is read these days, but my best guess would be by at least 4-6 readers. Of course, not all readers will check every link submitted with the application, and the readers review applications wherever they want, so hits may not necessarily be from Cambridge. </p>
<p>After all the applications are read, the admissions officers go into selection committee, where they gather in groups and discuss each application individually until they can come to a consensus decision on it. In this sense, the admissions officers are currently selecting students they’d like to admit, but it’s not as though there’s a fixed number of spots that declines over the course of selection – no final decisions are made until selection is over.</p>