Holistic Admissions

During junior meetings we have been talking about various aspects that are contributing into a college's evaluation of the applicant.  This is, essentially, talking about holistic admissions.  

There are some colleges which will basically look at a student's grade and test scores and make an admissions decision, but the vast majority of colleges are using a process to evaluate applicants that is taking in a wide range of factors and not just grades or test scores.  Strength of academic schedule, essays, leadership, community service, activities students are involved with, demonstrated interest, recommendation letters, and interviews are examples of the components colleges may consider when evaluating applicants.

Whenever I am answering questions about what that evaluation process looks like from a college's perspective I think about this old article that showed a behind the scenes look at how colleges were taking an applicant's information to evaluate it.  I believe you might find it interesting as well.

This is a link to the evaluation processing page that one college uses (and a good idea of what many colleges will do) to take your application and convert it over to a one-page form to have a quick snapshot of you.  Be sure to check on the different areas to get a description of what each means.

There were two articles connected to this evaluation page that helped give additional information about how the evaluation of applications is carried out.  Although they were from several years ago, I believe you will still find the content helpful and informative.

How one college evaluates a transcript

Shedding further light on how one college decides