<p>I understand your point about selecting the best few applicants out of a bunch, and how that selection can change based on an innumerable number of factors that come with time. I guess it’s just all in the nature of subjectivity.</p>
<p>^That is false. Have you not read the post about how Yale decisions actually work? You know … members from Skull and Bones taking paintball guns and firing away at our applications pinned to the wall? I don’t see much subjectivity in that, just destiny.</p>
<p>^
Haha.</p>
<p>er… I mean…
I’m pretty sure I suck at destiny. Either that, or destiny has a personal vendetta against me. So my application will probably drown in paint.</p>
<p>silverturtle: I wouldn’t argue that a bunch of admissions officers would score 30,000 essays consistently. But that isn’t remotely necessary. All that is really necessary at a place like Yale is that they be able to identify the best 1,000 - 1,500 essays confidently. There will always be arguments at the margins, no matter what number you pick, but (based on my experience in similar situations) I think there would be broad agreement on 80-90% of the target – and that’s plenty to accomplish the goals of the admissions process, as well as to make the essays a major (if not THE major) factor in admissions decisions for unhooked applicants. (Not for all of them – some people will be so impressive in other respects that a mediocre essay won’t hurt. But there aren’t so many people like that.)</p>
<p>My experience reading college application essays for Yale and similar places, by the way, is that the norm is pretty bad. Not terrible, but far from great. Really good ones really stand out. I have also participated in exercises where a group of adults read a bunch of college applications and score them, and I can tell you that the essays are a huge distinguishing factor.</p>
<p>I think there’s an important distinction to be made when you get into the really upper-tier of scores–say 2300+. Getting 2400 is better than 2390 is better than 2380 etc IF the applicant has not taken the test an excessive number of times. Such striving for perfection could be viewed as indicative of the applicant’s neurosis and inability to cope with setbacks/things not going exactly how he wants. For instance, I’m sure a 2350 who took the SAT twice is preferable in the eyes of adcoms to a 2400 who took it fifteen times. Or ten times, or possibly even five times–depends where you draw the line of “excessive.” But there definitely IS a line.</p>
<p>Of course, this is only true at a school which does not allow score choice (Yale being one of them).</p>
<p>^^Agree that the number of sittings is a factor, that’s one reason why Y rejected Score Choice:</p>
<p>[No</a> choice on scores | Yale Daily News](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/jan/16/no-choice-on-scores/]No”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2009/jan/16/no-choice-on-scores/)</p>