I applied ED 1 to a college, and am wondering who reads my application? Is it my regional admissions officer or someone else? And what makes it so that your application is read in a room with all of the admissions officers, who decide on your application? Any information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
It depends on the college. At a college that receives tens of thousands of apps, I understand that additional readers are brought in for the inital process. Each app is read by two readers. If it passes that round, it then goes to the regional ad officer. If it gets through that, it will then be taken to the committee. At the committee, officers vote on apps to admit, WL, or deny. Or defer, if ED or EA apps are in contention. At smaller colleges, probably the main difference is that the first step is cut out. I am not totally clear on it, but read the Gatekeepers if you are really interested.
Each AO makes a case for the applications they bring to committee. Sometimes they are on the fence about a student and want input from others, sometimes they are campaigning hard for a particular kid. Sometimes they want to deny, but maybe the student is a bigwig alumni’s kid, or an athlete with marginal grades, etc… There is no magic formula that will get your app to a committee room, other than being a great student with great everything. That always helps:-)
@Lindagaf Thanks for your input! One question I still have is, that because I am applying to a smaller-ish school (15,000 total applicants with only 1000 applicants for ED which is what I am applying) when my regional admission officer reads it can she automatically admit or deny someone, or is every application brought to the committee? Thanks in advance!
Again, it varies from college-to-college. In any event, it isn’t worth concerning yourself with things that are out of your control.
15,000 is still a big number. The AO who initially reads can deny right away I believe, if it’s just a case of one AO doing the reading for apps in their region. I don’t think any admits are decided unilaterally. But as stated, it’s out of your control.
Repeating what others said, wondering what’s going on does nothing for you emotionally. Please ignore it as much as possible. I bet you’re iced to be around when you do this. Good luck
Mostly it is done online now, and students have a peak into what is happening by checking their app status.
Schools wont act until your app is complete (has transcript, scores, etc).
Many will have some automated scoring of the app while its online, verifying your reqs, and adding their own scores based on tests, gpa, etc. Again, students can now see some of that where schools publish their scoring openly (like the U of Iowa).
If you are safely above the average admitted student, your app can get a quick approval. if you are on the bubble they will dig deeper. Approval generally requires that you sway at least one adcom, and they then meet as a group to compare their candidates.
What the other posters say is also true. Varies a lot by school and not much you can do about it.
It varies from different schools. For example, UCLA and Berkeley will hire outside people to become its application readers. Most of the readers will be school alumus or people with college degree whom apply to become a reader.
Did you get into lehigh