College admissions is a complicated and opaque process — but it doesn’t have to be that way. With a better understanding of how admissions officers at elite schools operate, you can optimize your application to present yourself as the best applicant you can be. In this video, Elias will walk you through the steps to an acceptance and give you an inside look as to how your application is viewed by admissions committees.

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We’ve broken down the process as an abridged transcript below.

Introduction:

Today, we’ll be discussing how admissions works at elite colleges so you can apply with the right information in mind. Elite colleges want students who will enhance the school’s prestige — we call this the Success Principle. Schools want to be able to brag about their successful alumni and benefit from future alumni donations. Admissions officers want students who specialize in something, with the goal being to build a well-rounded CLASS of students, not a class of well-rounded STUDENTS.

Step 1: Demographic sorting

Admissions officers sort applications into demographic categories or lanes — these can be based on factors like ethnicity, geography, legacy, or recruited athlete status. Admissions officers try to make sure each of these categories (and their respective sub-categories) are represented to some degree in the incoming class.

Step 2: Academic cutoff

After sorting candidates into these categorical lanes, admissions officers assign each category an academic cutoff. This is by contriving an academic index score, which combines grades with test scores based on the highest scores in the group. Test scores aren’t the main thing admissions officers will use to evaluate you, rather, they’re used to ensure you clear a threshold — in this manner, higher test scores have diminishing returns for elite private schools. Thus, high test scores won’t make up for poor essays or a lack of extracurriculars.

Step 3: Holistic review

This is the third and most crucial step — where admissions officers critique the non-academic portions of your application. At this stage, there are still a few qualified applicants for every slot in the incoming class. Admissions officers read through dozens, if not hundreds, of similar applications, spending only five to seven minutes on each. In those few minutes, something on your application needs to stand out to your application reader in order for them to advocate for you to the larger admissions committee.

One way to stand out is by having a spike, something on your application that allows you to stick out from the category. It can be an academic strength, an extracurricular activity you excel in, or a dedicated hobby — really anything. You can use this spike to craft your application with an overall theme in mind.

Blending your spike, other extracurriculars and essays to form a cumulative theme will allow for your application to have a cohesive narrative rather than being an amalgamation of random achievements. Thus, the most important personal component of your application is the essays. You must write about all of these elements in an important and meaningful way and have admissions officers relate to you as a person. After reading your essay, they should have a lasting impression from your story and feel that you’re a good fit for the school.

Step 4: Filling the gaps

Students who pass the academic thresholds and holistic review form the majority of the incoming class. But what if that’s not you? Well, if you didn’t make the academic cutoff or have an especially compelling essay, not all hope is lost.

The final step, filling in the gaps, occurs when admissions officers have filled in most of the incoming class but still need to address a few ‘buckets’ they’d like represented, or target demographics that they want to hit.

They can relate to demographics; for example, many schools like to say they have students from all 50 states. So, if they get to Step 4 and don’t have a student from, let’s say South Dakota, they’ll go back through the top applications from that state and try to find someone that stands out to round out their class geographically.

Conclusion:

And that’s it — well, relatively. As you can see, some of these factors are out of your control. At the end of the day, it often does come down to luck. Every system has its issues, and college admissions is no exception. Check out CollegeVine’s website and resources (all for free!) linked above to help you with all of your admissions needs.

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