<p>I am very interested in the evaluation process of applicants, as I am sure all seniors are, at the moment. I was wondering if there is anyone that could give insight on how the admissions committee actually deals with the applications. Do they wait until the final deadline has passed, or do they evaluate applications as they come in? Are there quotas--even though many schools say there aren't? Will a school eliminate a stack of apps based only on SAT, GPA, or Rank? When 20,000 applications are coming in, how do they make major cutbacks? And how many of those 20,000 applicants at top universities are actually qualified? Any information at all would be interesting and helpful....</p>
<p>Any thing could happen - behind the closed doors</p>
<p>I’d guess that the college must begin the winnowing process as soon as it receives any applications. It would not be possible to wait until all have been received. Assuming that you’re talking about a selective school, i.e. one that accepts less than 50% of applicants, some applicants probably get rejected right off the bat by the counselors to whom the applicant is assigned. There may even be a sign-off process where a second counselor must agree. Then there are probably team meetings where the counselors present candidates and recommendations for group rfeview as in “This candidate comes from St Paul, MN, has a 3.9 GPA, got 2100 on his SAT, and has outstanding extracurruculars. I recommend that we accept him” Some apps probably go thru the mill several times. It has to be a collaborative process…</p>
<p>Here’s an article I found on UPENN’s website:</p>
<p>[High</a> drama in the office of admissions | csmonitor.com](<a href=“http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/12/15/fp11s1-csm.shtml]High”>http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/12/15/fp11s1-csm.shtml)</p>
<p>It’s from 1998, but it gives an idea of what you’re asking about.</p>
<p>St. Anselm’s prospective nursing students are pooled together. The deadline is Jan 15th, so Jan 16th they gather all the nursing apps and pick the 70 that they want. </p>
<p>Most of the school’s I’m applying to admit as the apps come in</p>
<p>Yes, I always imagined that there would be the big stack at the center of the table, and then a debate between the different committee members, accepting or rejecting each applicant. But now I realize that this is both unrealistic and impractical. The selection process must be very less dramatic–one school explained that only a few applications are every reviewed by the dean him/herself. All others pass through regional counselors. It just seems unfortunate that if it is only one or two people seeing the app, they could be in a bad mood that day, feel differently towards your application that day, etc. Very subjective…</p>
<p>Here’s an overview of Stanford’s admissions:</p>
<p>[The</a> Sink or Swim Round](<a href=“http://news-service.stanford.edu/stanfordtoday/ed/9801/9801fea501.shtml]The”>http://news-service.stanford.edu/stanfordtoday/ed/9801/9801fea501.shtml)</p>
<p>This might be valuable too:</p>
<p>[Getting</a> In: The New Yorker](<a href=“Getting In | The New Yorker”>Getting In | The New Yorker)</p>
<p>The Gatekeepers was required reading last year at my school. It goes behind the scenes for Wesleyan’s admissions.</p>
<p>[The</a> Gatekeepers, by Jacques Steinberg](<a href=“http://www.the-gatekeepers.com/asp/default.asp]The”>http://www.the-gatekeepers.com/asp/default.asp)</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The Gatekeepers: Books: Jacques Steinberg](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Gatekeepers-Jacques-Steinberg/dp/0670031356]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Gatekeepers-Jacques-Steinberg/dp/0670031356)</p>
<p>Thanks for the article, RaNe…it really provides the information I was looking for.</p>
<p>When I visited Wesleyan they had the book displayed…I think its best to think about the admissions decision as not whether you’re good enough to be at a school, but more about how you will fit in and enjoy your time there. An admissions committee can prevent someone from being in a too challenging curriculumn or awkward environment. It’s still unfortunate that a recent boom in applicants leaves many capable students rejected.</p>
<p>Any applicant who is reasonably qualified gets their application put on a large wall.</p>
<p>Following that, trained monkeys are given a bunch of darts. The door is closed, and if an applicant gets their file hit by one, they’re in! If more than one dart hits a file, the monkeys get another shot.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, it would be interesting to get some insight from college admissions officials.</p>
<p>My guess is that at the highly selective schools there is a first big whack, based on SAT scores (below a certain number like 2000 at the Ivies) and woefully incomplete applications. Special preferences applications are pulled out of this group and set aside. Then there is a somewhat finer cut of the pool based on GPAs, once they have been normalized. All of these are now the applications that don’t get read, the immediate rejects. I imagine the goal is to reduce the total applicant population in this initial process by 50-60%. </p>
<p>Then, I think, the preferences (athletes, legacies, URMs, etc,) are gone through, as are the rest of the pool. There is probably some overarching direction guiding the readers as to kind of class the school is trying to shape. </p>
<p>All applications that are deemed serious are read by at least two admission officers. A unanimous decision is required for an admission recommendation. These recommendations are then discussed in a committee with one or more of the readers defending the decision. On close calls, where the readers can’t easily come to a unanimous decison, the application is sent to the Director for a vote.</p>
<p>I imagine the process is quite iterative with a lot of horse trading. </p>
<p>See the link below for a sanitized version of the process art William & Mary.</p>
<p><a href=“http://alumni.wm.edu/magazine/spgsum_2007/pdf/admissions.pdf[/url]”>http://alumni.wm.edu/magazine/spgsum_2007/pdf/admissions.pdf</a></p>
<p>They have massive orgies involving animals and humans alike. In the midst of all this–during the refractory periods-- they decide–very randomly, mind ye–on who to accept/reject/kill, etc.</p>
<p>This a good thread that provides a number of great sources on the admission process at LACs and other schools.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/419701-collection-articles-inside-admissions-process-selective-lacs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/419701-collection-articles-inside-admissions-process-selective-lacs.html</a></p>
<p>RaNe, that was a very insightful article, as were all of the others. Now I think we all have a little more knowledge on what goes on within these admissions committees at top schools lol</p>
<p>Those articles were very depressing…revealing, but very depressing…pretty much they write off everything I’m counting on to get me in as “strong academics” and then proceed to focus only on the “soft” parts, which I’m bad at… :(</p>
<p>I personally know an admissions office counselor who said they are NOT need blind, although they continually say they are</p>
<p>The process varies from school to school. We’re still over a month from deadline, but we’ve already read about 900 completed applications. I like the gentle start to the year that getting rid of ED has givne us at UVa. I can take my time on apps right now. In January, the pace will be much faster.</p>
<p>During our first round, every folder at UVa gets read at least twice and sometimes three or more times. If the decision is difficult or there’s an interesting case, we’ll take it to committee. The Committee at UVa is every person who reads applications. In the meeting, the first reader for each application will present it and be the student’s advocate. After the presentation will come discussion, followed by a simple hand vote. </p>
<p>After that round, we’ll look at the decisions we made and see where we stand with the numbers needed for each school. During the next round, we’ll work in teams to fill in the gaps. For example, we might have a team working to pull up x number of out of state engineers, another working to pull up x number of in state nursing students, etc. (by pull up, I mean move students we had thought of waitlisting to the admit pool). It’s a tedious round, but I always enjoy digging around and finding some really great kids to pull into the class.</p>
<p>Last round is for scholars program decisions and special requests from scholarship committees around the University. </p>
<p>Now, I know of a schools where every single folder goes to committee. I know of a school where all admits and waitlist students are brought to committee…it really is done differently at different schools.</p>
<p>" . . . you ended up as socially irrelevant as the University of Chicago (an institution Harvard officials looked upon and shuddered)." - From the New Yorker Article.</p>