The holy grail of college application

College application is generally a challenging time in the life of 2 set of people:

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1. Students

2. Parents whose first child is going to apply for college

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Who is more anxious depends on the parents!! If you are like me, you will be thinking about this right from the time your child joins middle school and try to reach the end of Internet by "researching"!! This is just not needed... But I know it is easy for me to say now, but it is not easy for many parents.

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With that said, let us get into the details.

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Here are the important topics for college admission:

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1. SAT and/or ACT score

2. GPA. Both weighted and unweighted as provided in the high school transcript

3. Course work of the student. How many Honors and how many AP courses.

4. College Essays

5. Sports and clubs at school

6. Activities outside of school (Ex: Martial Arts, Dance, Music..)

7. Volunteering

8. OPTIONAL: Subject SAT tests

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Key Dates:

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The below are typical dates of a college for students applying for fall semester. Most colleges have similar dates. Needless to say, please check each college's website:

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• Application available: August 1st

• Early Action deadline: November 1st

• Normal Action deadline: January 15th

• Early Action admission decision: January 15th

• Normal Action admission decision: March 31st

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Types of Admission Decisions:

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1. ADMIT: The college is able to offer the student a spot in the incoming class. The student must also pay their deposit by May 1st of that year to hold their place in the incoming class.

2. DENY: The college is unable to offer the student a spot in the incoming class. This could be due to a variety of factors from the college's holistic review process.  Sometimes, students are able to request their application be re-evaluated if they provide new information or change their major once receiving this decision

3. DEFER: A defer decision simply means that the college needs additional time to assess the space in the student's desired program before making a final decision. Students are encouraged to provide new grades and test scores in the student application portal. The college will notify deferred students of their final decision before March 31.

4. WAITLIST: Students are placed on a waitlist when the college is  unable to offer a spot in the incoming class due to various reasons. However, it is possible that after the May 1st deadline, spots in programs that were closed could open up. By accepting a position on the waitlist, students could potentially be given admission if a spot in their desired program opens.

EARLY DECISION vs EARLY ACTION

Both Early Action and Early Decision allows students to get an admissions decision early. Students apply in the Fall and usually receive their decisions in December or January. However, the biggest difference between Early Action and Early Decision is that if you apply Early Decision - you are then committed to that school. Early Action allows you to receive your admissions decision, but then still have the flexibility to wait until "Decision Day" (usually in April) to commit to a school.

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Apply for Early Decision only-and-only-if you are close to 100% sure of going to that college. This is a win-win for both the student as well as the college. The college gets a confirmed student who meets their criteria.

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WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A COLLEGE APPLICATION IS SUBMITTED?

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When a student submits a college application, it goes into a pool of applications that are reviewed by professionals who are trained to do this year after year. So, first thing first – Do not try to be over-smart and try to fool the reviewer into building a perception about the student which is not real. In other words, the KEYWORD is TRANSPARENCY.

Just to get an idea, I am sharing the steps followed by a reputed TOP 5 engineering college.

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1. A check for completeness. The college matches supporting documents to your application in their database. Supporting documents includes everything from transcripts to letters of recommendation to test scores. The take home message is they’re ensuring your file is complete so they can begin their review. If it is incomplete, your admission portal will show exactly what you are missing and you will start getting emails/texts/calls/owls about that.

2. All applications from 1 high school are consolidated into 1 set. This allows the reviewers to get an idea of where a particular student stands along all the applicants from that particular high school. Typically a reviewer is assigned to a high school or city or state.

3. The first review is conducted by a single individual. That counselor reads your application in its entirety, makes an admission decision recommendation and passes it along to another team member who is typically more senior. Think about this as checks and balances. Schools want to be sure multiple people read your file and have a chance to offer their opinion on your candidacy for admission

4. In other cases, schools employ Comprehensive/Team Based Review. The concept here is a simultaneous and synchronous review. Two team members read your application at the same time. One will evaluate you from a purely academic standpoint by reviewing transcripts, testing, and teacher and counselor recommendations. They take a deep dive into your course choice, grade trends, and how you have performed within your school’s context. The second reader tries to understand how you’ve used your time outside the classroom, as well as the impact and influence you’ve had on others through working, clubs, sports, or other pursuits. That staffer also reads your essays, short answer responses, and, depending on the college, may also read recommendations.  Each staff member makes individual recommendations based on their evaluation. They could both agree to admit or deny, or there could be a split decision.

5. Next, schools move into “committee review,” or “cohort review,” or “class shaping.” Deans, directors, and VPs provide additional direction about institutional priorities and empower larger groups of staff to review applications on both an individual and comparative basis. Typically, in this phase discussions are informed by specific targets. Do we have enough admits from certain counties, states, or nations? How are particular majors doing in terms of their specific enrollment targets? Geography, academic major, ROTC, special talents, first generation, financial need, demonstrated interest may all come into play. Some or all of these student attributes, and potentially many more, are discussed as applications move through the committee review stage.

6. The final step is deans and directors are consulting with their data analysts to gauge their mathematical models for “yield” (the number of admitted students who actually choose to enroll).

7. Let’s say a college has a yield rate of 34% (this is actually quite common nationally). The dean knows his/her president, board, and faculty are counting on a class of 1,400. The current number of admits after committee is 5,000, which would result in a class of 1,700 students. The dean knows about 100 of the students who deposit do not ultimately enroll (this is known as “melt”). With residence halls and dining halls built for 1,400 new students, she is over by 200. Accounting for yield and melt, a small group of senior-level admission folks take on the unenviable task of further reducing the number of admits (in our example by about 600+ students). This pushes previously slated admits to the waitlist, and as a result has a cascading effect on both the number and percentage of students who end up with that particular decision.