<p>As we know, our applications are reviewed by admissions officers. But I have a question: who makes the decision? Do assistant directors or assistant officers have a part in decision making? How about other ordinary students who study at that college?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I make the decision.</p>
<p>You should check with individual schools, but I have never heard of random undergrads making the choice, except maybe at somewhere like Deep Springs.</p>
<p>At nearly all schools there is a committee that makes some or all the decisions. In addition, at some schools the Dean or Director of admissions can single-handedly make decisions if they so choose. At others it takes a vote of the full committee.</p>
<p>Noimagination: I like your answer.</p>
<p>Coureur: is there going to be only one committee? Who’s going to make up the committee?</p>
<p>^^Usually one committee and the make-up varies by school. Most will have many or all of the professional admissions officers on the staff. Some will also have one or more professors. A few might include a student representative.</p>
<p>How do they pick the student representative?</p>
<p>I read a rather interesting book once about college admissions by Michelle Hernandez. A is for Admission is the name. But to give you the reader’s digest, the way she explained it was there are essentially three tracks your application can go down. </p>
<p>If the first person who reads it (usually the reader for your region) likes it very much, they may say to accept, then it goes to another reader, if that reader votes to accept it goes directly to the dean of admissions who makes the final decision to either accept you or send your application to committee. A similar thing can happen if the first two readers don’t like you at all, except it is the assistant director who makes the final decision. Finally, of there’s no clear vote from the first two readers (both say possible) it goes to committee.</p>
<p>Unless you’re a truly spectacular applicant, or a truly terrible one, you’re going to wind up in committee basically as a rule.</p>
<p>CMU2013: so are you saying that if the first two readers say no, it’s the assistant director who makes the decision whether to send you to the committee or reject? Can the assistant director say yes and then accept you? or only the dean has the power to accept other than the committee?</p>
<p>and who will the be first two readers? assistant directors too? or students?</p>
<p>You seem inordinately obsessed with who reads your application when; especially if a student is involved. Why? </p>
<p>First, to my knowledge the vast majority of schools do not have students as part of the admissions review process; it’s a huge time hole that few students could fit into their schedules. At best, the closest thing to a student might be a recent grad who has been hired as an employee of admissions. Second, beyond being able to identify your regional rep it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever find out who the actual people are who read your application. Third, any attempt to contact or adjust your application to suit your audience would likely backfire, so what’s the point of all this?</p>
<p>Although not a regular part of most admissions. It’s not uncommon for students involved in select honors or fellows programs to interview possible candidates for those programs. Their impressions may be shared with the admissions department depending on the process at that school.</p>
<p>I think because of privacy laws it would be very difficult to have a student review applications. </p>
<p>My first job out of college was as an admissions counselor at one of the SUNY colleges. I was the freshman counselor and I made the decision. Sometimes I would ask for a second opinion. It was not a particularly competitive school.</p>
<p>I still think that only the most competitive colleges actually have a committee. Look at the numbers. You have an admissions staff of so many, you have so many applications, and you have from January to April to go through them all (some schools do have rolling and review apps all year). There are not enough hours in the day to have five people tied up reviewing applications.</p>