The College Application: Behind Closed Doors New Haven CT

The College Application: Behind Closed Doors

by Peter Van Buskirk 

You are a college applicant. It’s mid-winter. Your applications have been submitted and all you can do is wait. After months of mail, interviews, phone conversations, and campus visits, the chatter from the colleges has all but disappeared and the silence is deafening. 

What happens to your application when it reaches the admission office? Who reads it? What will they think? How will they decide? Surprisingly, the answers aren’t that simple. 

Colleges and universities use different systems, depending on their applicant volumes, levels of selectivity, and institutional agendas. Universities that process tens of thousands of applications often will presort credentials electronically, using a formula involving standardized tests and GPA. Some of the most selective schools apply an index derived from a more complex set of variables in order to prescreen applicants. In each case, candidates who meet predetermined standards are referred to the admission committee for further review. 

Once in committee, it is common for multiple people to read an application before any decisions are made. First readers can be assigned in different ways. Sometimes it’s by recruiting territory. At larger universities, first readers can be part-time staff, hired specifically for that purpose (usually applications are read in alphabetical groups in this situation). Others are specialists in particular majors or subgroups o...

Author: Amy Ambler

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