College Admissions Competition (Who Are Students Really Competing Against?)
Last Updated on November 8, 2023 by Jill Schwitzgebel
As admissions decisions have come in this year, like every year, families will try to figure out why one applicant got admitted and another did not. The perception is that there is indeed a college admissions competition among applicants. But applicants are usually not competing for admission against who they think they are competing against. Or at least, they are not competing in the way they may think they are. If you’ve been following this site for a while, you know just how many factors are involved in an admission decision. The student’s biggest competition is usually – themselves.
To understand this, you need to understand some background about the application evaluation process.
Background
Keep in mind that there are different variations on this process at each college. The majority of colleges use a holistic review of the applications. But, generally, each application is first read by the college representative for that region. That representative may have met the student in-person at a high school visit or conversed via email, or even, interviewed them. That admissions person knows the high schools in their region – they may even know which applicants they admitted from that high school in the past, and whether those students accepted their admission offer. If for some reason they aren’t familiar with a high school, the high school profile that comes with each application helps them. But these things may not matter until later in the process.
For now, after a first reading and evaluation by the applicant’s regional representative, the application will go on to at least one more reader, and often, more than one. In this round, each reader will likely assign a rating score to the application, based on some very straightforward criteria: GPA (which is not always the same as what applicants think it is), test scores (if submitted), rigor of classes taken, leadership and activities, intended major (some majors may require a higher GPA for admission). It is quite possible that at some institutions, applicants are admitted or denied outright early in this process. It is true that a strong essay may help support a student’s application at this point in the process, if the applicant is on the borderline, as the essay(s) will be part of that score. But, at this point, applications are evaluated on their own merits, and against the standards of the college itself, not against other applications.
Next Step
The next step in the application-reading process is the one where smaller details begin to matter. At some colleges, it may be that only applications that receive a certain average “score” from the application readers move on to this step. All below that average score will be denied admission, and all above that score will be automatically admitted. But at other colleges, all applications move to this next step and are presented in a committee. Applicants who are recruited athletes or who are legacies may move on to their own special review process or committee at this time.
Other factors begin to be considered now too. This is when a committee will look at things like a high school’s previous admission history and high school profile. So at this point, students still are not competing with other applicants. But, the college success of previous applicants from their high school may matter, as does the perceived quality of their high school. If students were offered an interview, the committee may consider the notes from that interview. They may look to see how much interest an applicant has expressed to get an idea of how likely that student is to attend, if admitted. The latter two factors are things that applicants still are able to influence.
At some institutions, there is an opportunity here for regional admissions representatives to “make the case” for an applicant from their region. They can talk about why they believe in that applicant and why that student should be considered, perhaps despite being perceived as equal to another applicant.
Final Step
The final step may actually be part of the previous step above, or at least, closely related. Most colleges also aim for some kind of a balance in their admitted class and each has a college profile they want to fulfill. So it’s at this point they will consider things like gender, state of residence (do they have an overabundance of students from Ohio and need some from the northwest?), activities (do they need another saxophone player for the marching band?), intended majors (do they have too many biology majors and not enough finance majors?), etc. This is the part of the process that an applicant has no real control over, and where applications may be compared — just not in the way applicants think they are being compared.
This process is why really highly qualified applicants may not get an acceptance letter, especially at those highly selective (rejective!) colleges. At one point, those denied students may have even been in an acceptance pile, until the college began the final shaping of their class (and vice-versa!). There are so many nuances that it is impossible for any applicant to know why a peer got in when they did not. But overall, no, it is not a competition against their classmates and other applicants – students’ biggest competition is themselves!
For more on how college admissions can seem random and why, check out one high school senior’s perspective: http://www.inklingsnews.com/opinions/2022/03/15/college-admissions-revealed-to-be-incredibly-subjective-random/
You may also like: College Admission Outcomes: A Case Study
