Who’s reviewing your application?

February 5, 2010 – 2:06 pm

If there’s one thing I know at this time of year, it’s that the college admission process is not an easy one. When I applied to colleges seven years ago, I felt a great deal of pressure and so much uncertainty; all the chaos of applying, followed by the months of waiting, made senior year one of the most intense years of my life. Now that college admission is my job, I’ve discovered something really interesting: the college admission process is not an easy one for those who make the decisions, either.

We know what’s riding on our decisions. If you think that admission professionals just sit behind closed doors and dispassionately dole out students’ fates, you have a very stereotypical but ultimately very wrong picture of selective admission. We read each application with a great deal of care, remembering that each file represents a unique person – we’ve all been through this process as students ourselves, and some of us have seen our children through it, too. We put in a lot of overtime hours and, believe it or not, go through a lot of stress and worry making sure we give every applicant a full and thorough look.

One reason our decisions are made in a committee is to make sure there are many voices at the table, many personalities and different ways of looking at things. Our combined experience is what makes the give-and-take of selective admission work. So want to know who’s reviewing your application? There are 13 of us sitting on the admission committee at Richmond. Here’s a little more about us:

4 of us are Richmond alumni.

9 of us worked in admission at other institutions before coming to Richmond.

4 of us have been in the admission profession for more than 15 years.

11 of us have pictures of family in our offices.

7 of us are right-brained; 6 of us are left-brained.

1 of us is left-handed.

5 of us have pets.

9 of us hit snooze at least once when our alarm goes off in the morning.

10 of us try to work out at least three times a week.

6 of us plan to run the Monument Avenue 10K in March.

6 of us are rooting for the Saints, and 6 of us are rooting for the Colts.

8 of us are coffee addicts.

10 of us prefer Coke to Pepsi.

6 of us have been through the college admission process ourselves within the last 10 years.

6 of us were denied admission to at least one college where we applied.

2 of us have helped our own children through the college admission process.

10 of us have filled out the FAFSA.

10 of us went to college at least two hours away from home.

4 of us were first-generation college students (our parents did not go to college).

9 of us considered finances a significant factor in making our college choice.

By Tom | Posted in Application Process, Inside the Admissions Office | Leave a Comment

Mythbusters: Predicting College Admission

January 19, 2010 – 4:55 pm

One of the most frustrating elements of the application process to those of us at selective institutions is the notion that admission can be predicted. From students asking about GPA all the time (see why it’s not a good question), to the “chancing” that goes on in certain online forums (cough-cough College Confidential cough-cough), to the frustration of many who match our profile but aren’t admitted and can’t understand why, there’s a lot of misunderstanding about just what it is we do. I’m not accusing here; I understand what a stressful and anxious process this is for students. You want to know what your chances are. And we try to make the admission process as transparent as possible, but there comes a point in selective admission when the process is just opaque — you can’t predict it.

It’s certainly possible for some universities — especially the larger public ones. If you have a certain GPA and test scores, you’re in. Some colleges even guarantee scholarships if you make certain numbers.

But at most selective institutions, that’s simply not the case. And I’m never more aware of it than at this time of year, when we’re actually in the process of reviewing applications and shaping a new class. This involves a lot of give-and-take, back-and-forth, holistic review, and a balance of objective and subjective factors.

Let’s be clear here. Richmond, like many selective, liberal arts colleges, has a highly competitive applicant pool. Academics are the number one factor in our process, and we have the freedom to select a class from among thousands of academically strong applicants. So don’t take the notion of holistic consideration farther than you should; we consider students holistically with academics as our number one factor. Rarely, if ever, will personal qualities make up for poor grades or a lackluster curriculum.

That said, we could fill five or six Richmond-sized first-year classes with the number of academically qualified applicants we get each year. Most of our applicant pool is competitive academically. If your stats and numbers look similar to our profile or to admitted students, that’s great — but keep in mind that they probably also look similar to an even greater number of students who were not admitted.

Frankly, when it comes down to it, there’s not much difference (from our perspective) between the student with a 4.0 unweighted GPA and the student with a 3.9 unweighted GPA (assuming they have similarly rigorous curricula and similar test scores). They are similarly qualified. They are both excellent students who would thrive at Richmond. The question is, who do we want in our first-year class? This is where involvement, experience, character, essays, recommendations, and a host of other variables come into play. This is selective admission. We’re not going to pick the 4.0 just because of a slightly higher GPA.

Trust me. We’ve denied students with straight A’s in excellent programs. We deny many students each year who fall right into our testing ranges. And a quarter of our class each year comes in below the 25th percentile of our testing ranges (a self-evident statement, but I think people often pass over the significance of it). Our profile is there to give you a general idea of what Richmond students typically look like, but it isn’t a predictor of admission in any way, shape, or form.

Probably one of the least accurate things you can do is ask current students/your tour guide/alumni/random students in an online forum for their stats and try to measure yourself against them. This completely disregards context, grading scales, and many other factors that  likely influenced our decision in their particular case. Plus, this year is a different year: we have a very different applicant pool than we did three or four years ago (much larger, for one thing). And finally, once again, there are students every year who look academically similar who receive different decisions. That’s just the nature of selective admission.

So there’s really not much you can do but wait — and know that we take our jobs very seriously. We review each application with a great deal of care and thought, very aware of the significance of our decisions. Ultimately, we rely on the knowledge that there are many fine institutions of higher education out there, and each one is going to select different students for different reasons. Everyone will have a home next year; our task is to make the best matches we possibly can for our community here at Richmond.

And this can’t be done by the numbers.

By Tom | Posted in Application Process, Inside the Admissions Office, Mythbusters | Comments (4)

Richmond Scholars – where do we go from here?

December 16, 2009 – 11:57 am

“Is my application complete? Have you received everything? Did everything arrive by the scholars deadline? Is it complete?”

Relax. ;-)

We’re getting lots of anxious phone calls and e-mails, so please see my Don’t Freak Out post and save your e-mail or phone call until after we’ve had time to process everything. We had a huge spike in application numbers over the last two days, so we’re processing several thousand applications at the moment… not to mention all the supporting materials we’ll then need to match to the files. It takes time to be meticulous.

In the meantime, I wanted to fill you in a little on what happens next in the Richmond Scholars consideration process.

We will be in heavy, intensive application review mode over the next month and a half. Of all applications on file by December 15 (last year there were about 5000), the admission committee will select around 500-600 semifinalists to forward to the faculty scholars committees. All semifinalists will be notified by early February; when you are notified, you will also be given the opportunity to select two designations within the program. You may be asked to submit additional materials, depending on the designations you select — usually, these are materials you have already completed (e.g. a high school paper, scientific research, etc.)

In the interest of expediency, semifinalists are notified in batches, not all at the same time — some semifinalists may be notified in late December, others not until mid- or late January. We do this so the faculty committees can get started as quickly as possible considering semifinalists who have selected a designation and submitted additional materials. The order of notification depends simply on when applicant files are reviewed, and it tends to be fairly random, although it may correlate slightly (but not necessarily) to the order in which they are received. Only semifinalists are notified, via e-mail and postal mail, by early February; students who do not advance won’t receive notification.

The faculty committees will work throughout January and February to select a group of finalists (usually around 100), who will be invited to campus to interview in March. (All travel expenses are paid by the University.) Through the interview process, the committees will make their final selections.

And that’s the Richmond Scholars selection process in a nutshell. Feel free to comment if you have any questions, and I hope that gives you a better picture of just what happens now that you’ve sent us your application!

By Tom | Posted in Application Process, Inside the Admissions Office, Scholarships/Financial Aid | Comments (29)

Early Decision Decisions…

December 14, 2009 – 2:09 pm

…are in the mail.

Actually, they left our office via the USPS on Friday. If you follow the URAdmission twitter feed (also available on our home page), you would have known the moment it happened. (Yes, that was a shameless plug.)

My colleagues and I know that we’re charged with making (oftentimes) life-altering decisions for students. We have a highly competitive applicant pool — this year’s ED pool was the largest and most competitive we’ve ever seen — so our charge is to select from among very many similarly qualified applicants. This is a difficult thing to do at times, but I work with a wonderful group of people, and I’m confident that we give each and every applicant full and fair consideration.

Those of you waiting for ED letters will be receiving one of three decisions. Here they are, with a little explanation (credit goes to my colleague Maria for some of the following language):

Accept. Congratulations! The admission committee determined that you are academically qualified to thrive in Richmond’s rigorous environment and, moreover, that your application demonstrated unique character, qualities, and accomplishments that we believe will contribute to building our unique community. Make sure to submit your deposit as soon as possible, check out our Accepted Students site, join the Facebook group, and watch the Google Map to see your hometown pop up when we receive your deposit!

Defer. This is not the end of the world. Take a moment to regroup and relax. A student’s application for Early Decision admission may be deferred to our regular decision pool for a couple of reasons. This is the perfect time for you to speak with your guidance counselor, parents, and admission officer. There may be something you can do to make your application more competitive in the regular decision pool. We are always happy to talk with you or your guidance counselor.

Deny. Sometimes the best decision for a student is to deny their application. We deny applications when we feel there is nothing the student can do to improve their chances of being admitted to Richmond. We want to give you the opportunity to get excited about other schools. In the future, if Richmond is still your first choice, you can always consider transferring. Again, we’re always available to talk to you, your family, or guidance counselor.

By Tom | Posted in Admission Tips, Application Process | Leave a Comment

Don’t Freak Out 2009

December 11, 2009 – 11:02 am

This was a popular post last year, so I think it’s one worth repeating. (Also, as you may have noticed, the posts have been infrequent this year, so any chance I have to spruce up a previous post and throw it out there is a welcome one.)

With the Richmond Scholars deadline fast approaching (December 15!), we tend to have a lot of anxious students and parents on the phone, asking whether their applications are complete and everything has arrived. I know you want to confirm everything as soon as possible, but please take a deep breath and… wait. We’re dealing with thousands of applications, and, even after the different parts of your application arrive here, it can take a little while for everything to come together in the same place. We have an incredible operations staff who meticulously file everything away, but with the volume we’re receiving, it takes some time. So don’t pick up that phone to call us just yet! Here’s what you need to know first, and this can help make the process much smoother and less stressful for all of us.

When you apply, here’s what to expect:

• Shortly after submitting your application electronically, you should get an e-mail from the Common Application confirming your submission.

• Within three or four business days of our receiving your application, you should receive an e-mail from our office acknowledging that we have received it and reminding you of the other required pieces (transcript, letter of recommendation, etc.) This is not to say that we have not received those pieces already – it is a form e-mail that goes out to everybody who applies, not a specialized e-mail telling you we’re missing those things.

• Within two weeks of applying, you will receive a letter in the mail, which will give you a login and password for BannerWeb, our online filing system. Using that information, you can log in and actually see which pieces of your application we have received and which we haven’t. Make sure you keep that letter – while we do our best to let you know if we’re missing anything, it is ultimately your responsibility to check and make sure your application is complete. Note: the first batch of letters has just gone out, so if you applied in October or November, don’t worry. Your letter should arrive soon.

As long as all your materials are postmarked by the proper deadline, you should be good to go. If you receive the letter two weeks later, log into BannerWeb, and discover that something is missing, that is the time to call our office – and don’t worry, because even after the deadline we will be able to accept materials, if for some reason they did not make it here in the first place. We would rather you wait until you receive the letter, check BannerWeb for yourself, and call us after the deadline, than call us sooner, when materials might still be in the mail or in processing and we can’t confirm anything for you.

So the message is: don’t freak out. We’ve got you covered.

One important note: our office will be closed for the University’s winter vacation from December 24 to January 3. We won’t be issuing e-mails or letters during that time period, so if you’re applying in mid- or late December, factor that into the timeline mentioned above.

We look forward to seeing your applications!

By Tom | Posted in Admission Tips, Application Process, Inside the Admissions Office | Comments (14)