Holistic Admissions
Holistic admissions means colleges consider more than just grades, making it essential for students to know how to tell their story and stay true to themselves.
https://www.theverge.com/news/682737/china-shuts-down-ai-chatbots-exam-season
“Chinese AI companies have temporarily paused some of their chatbot features to prevent students from using them to cheat during nationwide college exams, Bloomberg reports.
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When asked to explain the suspension, Bloomberg reports the Yuanbao and Kimi chatbots responded that functions had been disabled “to ensure the fairness of the college entrance examinations.”
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The rigorous multi-day “gaokao” exams are sat by more than 13.3 million Chinese students between June 7-10th, each fighting to secure one of the limited spots at universities across the country.
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The gaokao entrance exam incites fierce competition as it’s the only means to secure a college placement in China, driving concerns that students may try to improve their chances with AI tools.”
While there are undoubtedly downsides to a college admission system based mostly, or entirely, on objective measures like standardised tests, there is a certain predictability to it. What you see is what you get.
In just about every way, such a highly predictable system could not be more different than the college admissions system in place at most USA universities, which relies on a combination of objective and subjective measures to determine admissions.
This system is called “holistic admissions”.
For parents in the USA, this means the college admissions process won’t just evaluate your student’s grades or test scores. It will also consider character, activities, interests, challenges, and how they’ve grown. That can feel empowering. Or, exhausting.
https://www.nacacnet.org/factors-in-the-admission-decision/
What do colleges look at in holistic admissions?
“Holistic admissions” means that colleges look not just at grades and test scores when determining who to admit, but a combination of factors drawn from academic background and performance, socioeconomics, and even personality and character traits.
Each college gives different weight (importance) to each of these factors, making it more difficult to understand what factors are most important in determining your chances of admission.
Which factors exactly?
Here’s a list (yes, it is intentionally long) -
Academic:
Rigor of secondary school
Class rank
Academic GPA
Standardised test scores
Application essay
Recommendation(s)
Non-Academic:
Interview
Extracurricular activities
Talent/Ability
Character/personal
First generation
Alumni relation
Geographical residence
State residency
Religious affiliation
Volunteer work
Work experience
Level of applicant’s interest (aka demonstrated interest)
Applicant’s financial situation and ability to pay
Other “hooks” (e.g. fame and fortune)
Colleges often describe “holistic admissions” as a consideration of a wider range of factors that take into account academic achievements but also the recommendations of others (teachers, counselors), how you spend your time outside of school (extracurricular activities), and even personal qualities and life experiences.
It is true that opportunity is very uneven across the United States. Access to what most probably consider basic amenities in a public high school setting is not on-par (or even close to fair) across school districts in the USA.
Those in favour of “holistic admissions” often point to better understanding of a student’s academic performance given their unique context and circumstances as an important role of this admissions practice.
But, on the other hand, the practice of “holistic admissions” only seems to fuel the race to “do more”. In an attempt to really shine - when how you spend all hours of your high school life are seemingly part of the admissions decision - students and their families can often look to the more is better ethos.
Sure, you could take an AP course, but wouldn’t taking 5 AP courses “do more” to help your chances than taking just 4?
Sure, you may be interested in drawing just for fun, but wouldn’t joining your school’s art club (in a leadership position!) “do more” to help your chances?
Sure, you could mainly focus on your academic performance, but wouldn’t volunteering outside of school or participating in varsity sports “do more” to help your chances?
Now at this point you may be asking about which colleges actually use “holistic admissions”. Perhaps you can just circumvent all of this by just focusing on those colleges.
And the answer is pretty much every 4-year college you’re likely to read about in the news or hear about in college athletics uses “holistic admissions” for at least some of their admission decisions.
This includes -
Highly selective private colleges, such as the Ivy League (Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, etc…) and others nearly adjacent (Duke, Stanford, MIT, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Washington University of St. Louis, Cal Tech, etc…).
Large flagship public universities (University of Washington, University of Michigan, University of Texas, University of Virginia, University of California Berkeley, etc…)
Other very well-known public universities (Virginia Tech, Florida State, Penn State, Ohio State, Clemson, Auburn, etc…)
Many, many other colleges, big and small, public and private (Washington State University, Gonzaga University, Whitman College, Seattle University,… just to name a few from my home state of Washington)
So yeah… pretty much most colleges you can think of use “holistic admissions”, with the exception being colleges who admit just about everyone (think: your local community college).
So what should you do, knowing most colleges use holistic admissions?
Let me suggest three points for you to consider:
Don’t chase perfection. There’s no formula for admission—even “perfect” students get rejected. Remember that colleges are run more and more like businesses today, and their admissions systems exist for their benefit, not yours. You can do seemingly everything “right”, and not get in. As an example, it is almost certain that of the 140K+ applicants to UCLA this past year, many more than the 13K+ admitted students had straight As (in fact, only perhaps 7K+ of the admitted 14k+ had straight As? meaning almost half of the admitted class was offered a spot in spite of the fact that their objective high school academic performance was less than other applicants, all of whom were denied). Admission decisions aren’t always fair, and colleges are operating in their own best interest. That’s frustrating, but it’s also freeing: your job isn’t to be perfect.
Follow your own path. Take the classes in high school you want to take. Participate in the activities that give you joy. The primary goal is to discover what you are passionate about, and what you may be good at. Doing so will help you grow, which is the ultimate goal of education. Trust me that admissions officers can tell which pursuits you are genuinely interested in vs which seem like resume padding.
Make sure your story comes through. Whether in essays, interviews, or recommendations, colleges are looking to understand who the student is. Reflect, communicate, and take ownership of your journey.