<p>Are they in the process of reading the applications??
or have they finished choosing their students??</p>
<p>I wonder if they read all the e-mails that applicants sent to them.
Like thank you letters and stuff.
I see a lot of people around me are sending them, so I sent e-mails to some schools that I really liked. But only 1 school have answered and said that they have received. Does that mean they didn't read? or they have read it but just ignoring. </p>
<p>Have any ideas???</p>
<p>they are still reading the apps... i saw a big pile in my dorm fac's apartment and he's reading them</p>
<p>They are contemplating whether their fellow adcoms would be able to hunt them down if they ran away for the rest of the admissions process. :D
Reading the applications, and discussing decisions, lists, etc. They're not done yet, I suppose.</p>
<p>I don't think they'd appreciate e-mails at this point, especially if someone bugs them about whether they've received someone's app. Some schools have checklists, like Choate does, and most send you postcards telling you your application has been received. </p>
<p>Do they make decisions about students in succession? (i.e. right now they are reading the applications, and sorting them, and maybe the week after next they will go through all of them and put REJECT or ACCEPT on them)</p>
<p>I imagine a group of Mr. Hyde-like characters with long, black cloaks and top hats, stooping low over a massive pile of haphazardly-stacked papers in a dark, laboratory-type setting with noxious green gases floating in the background. Each one carries an red ink pad with a massive stamp on which, written in Stencil font, are the words "Rejected". These Mr.Hyde-like characters are laughing maniacally, stamping "Rejected" upon these papers furiously, their long, dagger-like teeth glinting menacingly in the darkness, their red, bloodshot eyes sinister. The whole time, this group of Mr.Hyde-like characters (about 10 of them) are laughing the trademark "Muahahahhahahhhahahahahhaa!!", and at one point, one of them proceeds to take a large stack of the applications and and throw them into his mouth, his teeth gnashing and ripping the applications to shreds, stamping the "Rejected" symbol upon every paper in sight. There is a window in the room, and through the haze of the green gas, I see lightning and trees being torn from their roots, wind howling, and moon bright and full, a serene pearl in the night sky, the only witness to the events occurring the room. Somewhere, a wolf cries a long, somber howl, a haunting mix to the cackling of the Mr.Hyde-like characters. :D</p>
<hr>
<p>Of course, the admissions officers are nothing like what my imagination tells me (or so I hope :D). It simply reflects the anxiety many will be feeling in the next three weeks; so much that the admissions officers might as well be Mr.Hyde-like-application-eating-maniacs. :D</p>
<p>They are logging on to CC to read what applicants are doing.</p>
<p>Really? Then, hello and welcome to CC! :p</p>
<p>So, you've just taken over the Admission Office at, oh, let's say Phillips Academy. It's February 1 and there are, I don't know, 1,400 application folders on hand. Everyone on your committee looks over each application at least once. So you hand everyone a box of 50 applications. And they each pass the box around the table to the next person when they're done reviewing those applications, perhaps assigning them a score or making comments on a form you've attached to each folder. You're the last one in the loop, so that when you finish reviewing a box it is "complete" (in terms of an initial review).</p>
<p>To give you an idea of the work ahead, let's imagine that everyone gets 1 day to complete each box of 50 applications. That's less than 15 minutes per application, assuming a 12 hour day (lunch is brought in) and a 7 day work week...ending today: February 28.</p>
<p>Now, after all that -- long hours yet only a 14 min. review by each member of the committee -- it's time to really separate the wheat from the chaff. You've got less than a week now to take all that information, match it up with financial aid considerations, meet special needs of coaches and various departments and programs, and create a class that has a certain character and is also diverse. </p>
<p>And you need to take a guess...a gut-wrenching one that your job depends on...as to how many people in your pool will get acceptance letters (based on what percentage you believe will matriculate). Guess too low and some wonderful people that you put on your wait list will be lost to other schools. Guess too high and you blow the budget and put a strain on facilities and faculty.</p>
<p>On February 28, time's running short. You need to allow your staff time to put letters together and send out 1,400 responses. So you don't have until the 9th...just maybe a week if you push things to the brink. And this is where your job is more like an artist and craftsperson than the robotic application review robot you and your committee were for the past few weeks plowing through a sea of applications. The decisions here are the hard ones...with the easy decisions having been reached by consensus during the first stage.</p>
<p>I'm not saying anyone actually works 12 hours a day for 28 straight days reviewing applications with a 15-minute egg-timer. But I am saying that I think one of the worst things you could do in life is be an AdCom this next week and then quit and become an accountant as April 15 bears down. Well, it could be worse. You could've worked as a sales clerk before the holidays, too, moved to the floral department for the second week of February. And raked leaves in the fall.</p>
<p>Well, whatever it is they're doing...I'm pretty sure that I don't envy them at this moment. Although, I would imagine that during the revisit days, on Prize Day/graduation, and early in the fall as the new class arrives...those would be rich times, indeed, for a member of an Admissions Committee. That would have to be the payoff for enduring the misery of the week ahead.</p>
<p>come on guys..you guys seem to forget they are just regular people. I see one of them every day on my floor.. and he's very friendly, unlike the coldblooded portrayal with the "rejection stamp" you guys imposed on him. He gives us "floor feeds" every wednesdays, watch "lost" together...
come on...adcoms are people</p>
<p>Yeah, go ahead. Take sides against your CC friends. </p>
<p>Go ahead and eat your pizza tonight -- purchased with the "blood money" from the application fees of two perfectly nice 13 year-olds who got rejected a half hour ago. Well one was rejected. The other was actually accepted...but, just for laughs, wasn't awarded a dime of financial aid.</p>
<p>I guess that's how it's gonna be from here on out with you. Yeah, that's right. I see what's going on: You've sent in your college deposit and are no longer with us. And we all know that if you're not with us, you're against us.</p>
<p>bearcats...you just betrayed this group. You are now officially dead to me.</p>
<p>Lol, that's taking the extreme of a statement isn't it? lolx!</p>
<p>LOL (10chars)</p>
<p>what just happened here?
whatever they're doing, they're working hard to meet the deadline.
Does it really matter what they're doing this exact moment?
It's is not going to change their decision or make our waiting any easier.</p>
<p>I actually would like to work in an admissions office, reviewing applications. It sounds like extremely hard work, but, strangely enough, it also sounds fun to me. I've been thinking for a few years that if I go to a prep school I might take a gap year between undergraduate and graduate school working in an admissions office at my alma mater. I'd do the minor jobs, of course, but I think they do hire people to do things like that. I'd like to.</p>
<p>
[quote]
come on guys..you guys seem to forget they are just regular people. I see one of them every day on my floor.. and he's very friendly, unlike the coldblooded portrayal with the "rejection stamp" you guys imposed on him. He gives us "floor feeds" every wednesdays, watch "lost" together...
come on...adcoms are people
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What I said was merely a fantastical representation that satisfies my apprehensions, so to speak. :) In no way is it an accurate portrayal of the admissions officers.</p>
<p>It takes a certain type of person to become an A.O. and for undertaking that responsiblity alone, I applaud them.</p>
<p>J, I've been thinking about that for a while too. I'd like doing that. I'd like interviewing applicants, etc. But I'd also miss the opportunity to actually go to the school. I'd secretly want to attend there as a student... haha.</p>
<p>Thats funny lol :)!!!!</p>
<p><em>The Gatekeepers</em>, by Jacques Steinberg, gives a good view of the admissions process at a competitive college. I assume the elite prep schools are similar in process. Your library should have a copy, or be able to get a copy through interlibrary loan.</p>
<p>If your applications are complete, though, there are better things to do with your time than obsess about prep schools.</p>
<p>It differs, some schools are looking at a few applications every couple of days, or for rolling, obviously their just doing the admissions when people apply etc...</p>
<p>Bumping this for many reasons. I noticed it while lurking long ago and remembered Post #5 this morning...always makes me smile. I can't believe it came up on my search. </p>
<p>ChaosTheory, if you're still around, I hope you're doing well.</p>