Key admission criteria used by top colleges
Factors used by top colleges to evaluate applicants
Selective colleges are not transparent about how they weigh the factors they consider in evaluating an application for admission. This lack of transparency has driven plenty of speculation in the media about which factors really count, and assumptions that a wealthy applicant with legacy is always admitted. This is simply not true.
The colleges call their admissions process holistic, but in reality there are several very concrete factors that they evaluate. Despite excruciating rounds of evaluation described by Jeffrey Selingo in Who Gets in and Why and Jacques Steinberg in the Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College, these evaluation rounds still focus in on the same factors over and over again at the top colleges.
Fortunately for everyone, Harvard had to publicly share evidence in the discrimination lawsuit (Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard) that included substantial amounts of data relating to their admissions process for 2014 to 2019. This disclosure, plus the accompanying expert reports, sheds a very bright light on what a top college like Harvard considers when evaluating an applicant. These disclosures also confirm what the college admissions experts have been saying for years about what counts in the college admissions process for the top colleges.
Factors used by top colleges in evaluating applicants
Based on our reading of the evidence provided by Harvard and what the experts have been saying all along, here is what we see the top colleges doing:
Applicants who are in preferential racial categories (African American/Hispanic/Native American/Pacific Islander), and those who are first in their family to go to college, are evaluated on a modified set of criteria including a lower academic bar, while all other applicants are evaluated using the following factors:
Academic Performance including GPA, AP classes, Standardized Test Scores, and class rigor
Activities, both school related and independent activities pursued outside school
Athletics, in particular whether an applicant is an athlete recruit
Personal, including the essay and recommendations that all speak to who the applicant is as a person, their character and personal qualities plus interviews when they do take place
Preferences, including legacy, child of donor, child of staff, and in some cases the ability to pay full tuition.
Harvard scores applicants on the first four criteria listed above on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being the best score and 4 being the weakest score possible. The Harvard data shows that applicants who scored only 3s and 4s were universally rejected, while about half of its admitted applicants scored at least two 1s out for the first four criteria. Those in a preferred category were given a big boost in their chances of admission.
The bottom line for regular applicants without preference is that they must present as both academic high achievers and as high achievers in one activity, whether it is school related or independent. Those who play sports and become athlete recruits enjoy a special privilege and have a very significant advantage in the admissions process, especially with the colleges in NCAA Division 1. Applicants must also present, through their essays, recommendations and interviews, as possessing the character and qualities that Harvard and all the top colleges seek.
Academic Performance
Anyone who has engaged an experienced college admissions counselor will tell you that they were advised in no uncertain terms that academic performance, including standardized test scores, matter the most in the evaluation process.
Academic performance is the filter through which all applications must pass before moving forward.
An applicant whose academic performance falls outside of the average academic range of a top college’s undergraduate population will have a very hard time gaining admission to that top college.
The best way to measure an applicant’s ability to survive and thrive with academically rigorous course work is to look at:
their academic performance in high school including their grades,
the rigor of the classes they took best indicated by AP courses and
their performance on the standardized tests.
Better yet, if they were semi-finalists, finalists or winners of the National Merit Scholarship.
The highly selective colleges seek to admit those they can be confident of being able to handle rigorous college level course work. The best way to do this is to look at an applicant’s academic achievements in high school and at their standardized test scores.
The standardized tests, especially, were designed to assess an applicant’s college readiness. Despite test optionality, the highly selective college’s place a great deal of weight on an applicant’s test scores, and admit applicants who submit test scores a much higher rates than those who don’t.
The colleges do not evaluate class rank as part of the admissions process. While the highly selective colleges report class rank data in the Common Data Sets, this information is provided by applicants on a voluntary basis, and only a minority submit their class rank data.
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How important are grades and APs for admission to an elite college?
2. Activities
Assessing an applicant’s ability to succeed in adult life is difficult to do when there is so little track record for a young applicant. Selective colleges use the best available proxy, which is to assess the quality of activities the applicant undertook in high school, and see how well the applicant performed in them.
Just as success in the adult world requires a high degree of focus, initiative and specialization in the one thing that person is very good at, colleges look for applicant’s who have demonstrated ability to excel and stand out in one unique thing. They see this as a strong predictor of future success.
Long gone are the days when colleges viewed popular, well rounded applicants involved in a long list of school activities as desirable applicants to admit. The applicant who presents as well rounded but not unique starts off at a disadvantage no matter how perfect the grades might be.
Identifying the right activity that demonstrates an applicant’s passion and drive can be a big challenge for many applicants. Applicant’s are expected to identify and pursue a passion during a crucial developmental period in their teenage years, where exploration should take precedence over focused pursuit of one activity. However, the top colleges must filter through their huge applicant pools, and markers of maturity in being able to pursue an activity with passion and drive are a critical factor in gaining admission to a top college.
Finding a student’s special “X Factor” that will award an applicant a score 1 or a 2 in the evaluation process at a top college is now critical for any applicant aspiring to attend any of the top colleges. For most applicants, advanced planning starting in freshman year is one of the best ways to develop an activity that becomes the X Factor.
Read more about How to impress admissions at top colleges
3. Athletics
Athlete recruits are a special category of applicants who are able to either leapfrog the admissions process or they are given a distinct advantage in the Early Decision/Early Action and Regular Decision process.
Since not every athlete can be the very best in their age group, the colleges must compete for the top athletes who also meet academic performance criteria. These top athletes will have the luxury of selecting the college they like best.
Meanwhile, since every NCAA and varsity sports team at these top colleges needs athletes to fill their teams, there is scope for plenty of athletes further down the rankings of their sport to be also recruited to a sports team at a top college.
Colleges do differ in how they approach their athlete recruitment process, and athletes and their parents should become familiar with the varying characteristics of each of the colleges recruitment practices to maximize their chances at athlete recruitment to one of the top colleges.
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4. Personal
This evaluation takes a close look at the applicant’s personal characteristics through the applicant’s own eyes in the essay, as well as through the eyes of teachers and counsellors and sometimes though the eyes of an alumni interviewer who is a stranger to the applicant.
The Essay
A well written essay showcases who the applicant is as a person, and demonstrates their key qualities and characteristics. Selective colleges place enormous value on a well written essay that represents the applicant in an authentic way, no matter how unconventional.
The essay can be pivotal in gaining admission for an applicant whose activities are good but not stellar. Every applicant must understand this and tailor their priorities accordingly.
Read more about Top colleges want a great essay, period!
Recommendations
No application is complete without the recommendation letters. Recommendations are very important and pivotal as they provide the top colleges with critical insight as to who the applicant is. A strong recommendation letter will enhance the evaluation while a poorly written, half hearted recommendation can cause irreparable harm.
In a highly competitive situation, a strong recommendation will make a difference. Some colleges, like Williams College and MIT, are very explicit that the recommendation letters matter a great deal.
Read Your guide to great college recommendation letters
Alumni and Student Interviews
Alumni recommendations generally do not appear to have strong bearing on the admissions process. But it still pays to show up and present well, the alumni who views you favorably could become your advocate for admission or your other pursuits in life. A bad interview followed by a poor review will leave an overall poor impression that can harm your chances of admission, so do your best at the interview, always.
5. Legacies, Children of Donors/Staff and Ability to Pay
While the subject has received seemingly endless coverage in the media, rich applicants do not hold an enormous advantage simply because they are rich. The elite colleges are not usually interested in routinely comprising their academic quality for money. We do understand that selective colleges will give preference to an applicant whose family has made substantial donations, but they do so only if there is not a major compromise to academic quality. This writer knows of mega-donors whose children and grandchildren have been rejected by at least, one elite college for not meeting academic thresholds.
Some colleges as a matter of policy deliberately admit legacy applicants and donors’ children when they meet admission criteria leading to a higher overall acceptance rate for this group, while others as a matter of policy deliberately ignore legacy altogether.
For example, Claremont McKenna disclosed that 7% of its class of 2024 is made up of alumni and donor’s children which represents 23 students out of a class of 315. Children of alumni and donors formed about 5% of the accepted class of 2024, that is 35 out of 708 acceptances, but only 23 or 66% of them enrolled. On the other hand, Pitzer College, a sister college to Claremont McKenna said it did not provide preferential treatment to children of alumni or donors. What Pitzer did not disclose is how many applicants who were children of alumni or donors were admitted despite the lack of preference.
Children of college staff and faculty are also a category that that receives special consideration in the admissions process, but they too must generally meet admissions criteria.
If two applicants are running neck and neck on both academic performance and X Factor, the big question is whether the applicant with the ability to pay full tuition, would edge out the other applicant. The answer may depend on several calculations including whether the college has unmet financial targets and wants more students who can pay full tuition, and which applicant will better contribute to the overall configuration of the class.
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For a high school student aspiring to attend a highly selective college, playing an NCAA sport is potentially one way to stand out…