Waiting for the Mail

This is a nerve-wracking time of year for high school seniors, as they've submitted college admissions and are now just waiting to hear back. The TODAY show went behind the scenes of the college admissions process at Grinnell, a top-ranked, highly selective liberal arts college in Iowa. The interview showed what really goes on when admissions officers decide an applicants' fate?

TODAY: Has anyone's mind actually been changed in committee?

Grinnell College: Oh, I think all the time. I think part of that is a function of discovering information about a student that didn't quite come on the radar in the reader's review of the applicant.

One of the examples we saw is one kid didn't particularly interview well. How do you factor it all together in making your decision?

The important thing about how Grinnell and many other selective colleges practice admissions is we don't just look at grades or rank in class or standardized test scores. Instead we look at a wide variety of factors: the kinds of courses students take, certainly how well they do in them, how they score on standardized tests, what their teachers have to say about them, what kind of an essay they write and the perspective they bring to their writing, the activities that they are involved in, their work history. All of those factors contribute to what's known as the holistic review of a candidate. So it's not just one factor, it's a variety of factors.

One of the admissions officers wanted to see the cluster of applicants all the time. Why did she want to see it, why is it important and what is the cluster and what role does it play in the decision making process?

I would love to say that the admission process is a very straightforward process where every student is considered on her own merits, but that simply isn't true, especially in highly selective admissions.

First of all, as an applicant you're constantly being compared to every other applicant in the pool. Secondly if you're applying from a high school where there's a large number of other applicants you're going to be compared against other students applying from that high school. Now that does not mean that if there are 20 applicants that we won't admit all 20 if they're all standout, interesting students that we would love to have in class. But it does mean that we pay particular attention to whether you come from a high school that has lots of other applicants, or maybe even the state that you live in, geography could play a part in this.

What would be something to give you pause or concern in an application?

Certainly it's hard to see students who have a dip in their grades, especially later on. We're far more lenient early on in their high school career, if 9th grade is off to a rocky start, if a student is transitioning into an academic environment. We're much more prone to give that student a break in the process and discount their first year in high school.

Many of the students we see, they're taking progressively more challenging academic loads but as they take more challenging loads, as their grades start dipping, that worries us a little bit because college is a step up than high school. If they’re having a hard time taking a more difficult or more challenging curriculum and not doing as well, we wonder what the trajectory will be in college.

What are the things that win you over?

Unusual activities, students who at the tender age of 17 have already accomplished so much. I personally have seen things like running political campaigns, certainly writing novels and getting published, writing money- making computer programs, coding software -those are probably some of the more unusual things. We see lots of students who've had a significant national experience, they've been on committees, or been in programs that sent them around the country.

Beyond that, it's a couple of things. It's the adult, the high school guidance counselor or the teacher who makes particular notice of a student and gives us some context - basically in so many words says this is an unusual 17 year old, this is someone who takes more risks or has a bigger picture or has broader ambitions.

It might be in the essay itself. I think plainly the essay is one of those things that often breaks the tie on an applicant and the student who can, in their own words, paint an effective picture of themselves through demonstrating to us what matters to them, because of the topic they choose to write on and how they choose to write about it and the risks they take in setting up their subject.

Reading (applications) takes place perhaps not 24 hours a day but it takes place very early in the morning and well into late at night. So at some point there's a bit of weariness that sets in reading one good applicant after another. The student that's able to cut through that, an interesting essay, an unusual topic, someone who makes us laugh, that's someone that stands out for us.

Any words of wisdom for students applying: How personally should they take it?

I think that the right perspective on this is those letters that they receive in April are far more a reflection of the needs of the institution than they are a commentary on the student's ability to be successful in the future.

I know that this is a process that basically pumps students up to a point or near point of hysteria and I don’t think, in my heart of hearts, that's what our intent is as an institution. The selective college admissions game has put such a great premium on this idea of "you are where you get selected" that I feel it’s natural the families feel angst and students feel crushed if they're not admitted to the schools they want to be admitted to.

I will say having talked to students over the years that most of them, within their first semester or first year of college, most of them feel where they ended is a perfect fit. They didn't realize it at the time.

What I would say to the families is if you were to give it a year you'll find out that things happen for the right reason, that if you take full advantage of the institution that you end up attending, it will be a fantastic experience and it really is at that point all about you and what you are able to get out of your environment.

So while seniors are waiting to hear back, what should they be doing now?

One of the great things a student could do now is to begin thinking about the end. OK, assuming I get admitted to these schools, how am I going to make this decision and not leave it until April when they don't have a lot of time to make these decisions. And of course they're seniors and have a lot going on second semester senior year. So it would be good to elongate that and spend several months trying to figure that out. Be proactive in your choices even before you have to make them. chrissie