holistic applICATION reviews vs. metric based reviews
"who moved my cheese?"
Did They get in?
If you know any high school seniors this holiday season, they are about to learn their fate for their early decision college admissions and maybe even their early action decisions.
The one consistent behavior is overwhelming happiness for those admitted and a range of emotions for those denied or deferred.
Statistically, the admit rates have been dropping precipitously at the most select schools. Students who did not consider the admittance advantages of early decision may have some significant mood swings.
Reminder: once colleges were practically forced to go test optional during Covid, applications increased dramatically, especially at historically selective colleges. Students who would previously have not considered schools due to their below par test scores had become more brazen. Some schools became experts in working through their algorithms to fine tune their yield and even went so far as to lower the actual number of admitted students and not just benefit from the application volume increases that lowered their admit rates.
For those familiar with the metric application review in other countries (or the way it used to be in the U.S. just about a decade ago), the move to holistic application reviews can be upsetting.
A typical metric application view: How can my son/daughter who had a 1550 on the SAT (or 35 on the ACT) with a 3.9 GPA, 6 AP’s and a multitude of extracurricular activities not get into every school that he/she applies to?
