<p>i read that the process of admissions is an individual reading period where they throw out the absolutely nots and then the committee meets and everyone presents the potential candidates and that's what takes the bulk of the time. if so, how can they get all the likely letters sent out so early? do they instead have like cutoff stats for the individual readers to send out the likelys before the committee meets..?</p>
<p>they start reading well before the app deadline as the apps come in (basically as soon as they finish their trips around country), so yes its totally reasonable for them to have read all the files at least once by now. i don’t think there’s a cut off. these readers are experience enough to go through each file in around 30 minutes and decide whether it goes to another reader/committee, accept, or reject based on their impression. its all about their impression and numbers are just an important part of that impression.</p>
<p>so do likelies go out by the reader before they are even discussed at committee?
i assume that the bottom and the top of the applicant pool are quick decisions to make, but how long is spent discussing a possible candidate in committee?
i guess nobody would really know this unless they were an admissions officer i wish they’d include this stuff in their books though instead they’re all the boring same old stuff…</p>
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<p>yes. likelies are only read by the regional reader and confirmed by the director of admissions when he reads the summary written by the regional reader. they never go to committee.</p>
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<p>very briefly. they go through the summary that previous readers have written, have a short discussion, then vote on it.</p>
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<p>actually, ‘a is for admissions’ by michele a hernandez tells you all of this stuff. i read it a long time ago and it was quite insightful and its very specific to dartmouth for better or worse. i recommend it.</p>
<p>Dartmouth doesn’t have ‘regional readers’. Also, every application is read more than once.</p>
<p>The Michelle Hernandez book is probably outdated.</p>
<p>yea you are probably right. the book is more than 10 years old.</p>
<p>oh i see
so wait dartmoose if they don’t have ‘regional readers’ what do they have…? aren’t regional readers necessary to compare applicants from a weaker region like the midwest </p>
<p>do you know when they start committee? and when all decisions are actually finished? is it just before we’re notified
i wonder when they start bc what if an ED person sends in an update or something and they already talked about that candidate in committee? or do they do all ed people last? (i haven’t sent in an update yet, i don’t have anything good but may have one in a week or so… will it be worth it?)</p>
<p>Dartmouth and all the other Ivies like to boast that they have so sooo many great applicants that it’s hard to pick just a few, blah blah blah, that even if they randomly threw out 10,000 apps they could still pick an awesome class</p>
<p>Well, then, how come they identify certain students as “superstars” by giving them likely letters? The point of a likely letter is to recruit someone/make them matriculate…but why is this neccessary if there are so many good kids, huh? If the people who are accepted don’t come, it shouldn’t matter because someone equally great will fill their spot. </p>
<p>Likely letters should not be neccessary</p>
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<p>from the schools’ perspective, it is necessary not because they wont have an awesome class without such letters–because you are right, they will regardless of what they do–but because they always want to keep their yield rates high. since it costs them next to nothing to send these letters (as oppose to all the other money wasting recruiting tools that they use e.g. useless high school visits), they figure they might as well. do i think these letters make a real difference? of course not. but just because they can pick an awesome class at random doesn’t meant they don’t want to try their best to pick the best possible class.</p>
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<p>i think its probably slightly late at this point. unless it’s something really worth sending, i would say its best to keep your app as it is since unnecessary additions might annoy the officers. it probably wont make a difference either way though. good luck!</p>
<p>Everybody who gets in is excellently qualified to be here. Everyone who is deferred/wait-listed is qualified to be here. A substantial amount of the rejected applicants are qualified to be here, and would have been those accepted/wait-listed students just last year, and even more would have been accepted 3-4 years ago.</p>
<p>Those who get a likely letter are one of two things: 1. They are clear admits who they don’t need to have read all the rest of the applications to compare against. 2. They fulfill a certain demographic/type of student that they are trying to get more of/maintain this year.</p>
<p>As I have said in many other places, girls get these letters at a higher rate than guys. They end up accepting/matriculating half and half girls and guys, but the increased recruiting efforts ensures that this is true. It is speculated that because of our rural location, we are relatively less attractive to the girls we accept. (i.e. don’t come here expecting that you and your friends are going to be able to (or even want to) go shopping on weekends.)</p>
<p>They also use these letters to tell their recruited athletes that they are definitely accepted and don’t need to worry.</p>
<p>The moral of the story: don’t worry about not getting one. Everyone should be grateful even if they just get the ‘regular’ acceptance letter. It might be more of a complement that you were able to get in on your personal qualities, despite not being a highly desired demographic/having won siemens or something.</p>
<p>Que sera, sera.</p>
<p>From kjbtx456 “aren’t regional readers necessary to compare applicants from a weaker region like the midwest”</p>
<p>ouch. Are midwest stats significantly lower than the rest of Dartmouth admits? Had not seen this stat.</p>