This week we welcome Assistant Director of Admission, Ashley Brookshire, to the blog. Welcome, Ashley!
I used to think a lot of things in life were pretty clear-cut. I was very confident washing your hands was clear-cut until four years ago when I learned I was doing it wrong (rest assured, dear reader, I now take my time to sing “Happy Birthday” twice while I scrub).
So, in an era where clear-cut notions are decreasing in number, the idea that the college admission process is clear-cut absolutely needs to be addressed.
In fact, my hope is that by the end of this blog, the only thing clear-cut for you about the admission process is how unclear it can be.
“Good Fit” Colleges
Crafting a list of “good fit” colleges certainly falls into this category. The things that matter most to you in your college experience likely don’t align perfectly with the things that would top the lists of your friends, family, or classmates.
You’ve likely already weighed availability of academic programming that interests you, presence of co-curricular opportunities, social environment, location, cost, and fit to the college’s academic profile for admission purposes in your decision.
But even with similar factors at play, you will likely end up with a list that looks very different from your peers. Why? Because you are a unique individual with your own set of experiences and expectations that have determined your priorities for your college career. And there is no clear-cut, universally applicable formula that will help you reach your end result.
Living in the Gray: The Nuts and Bolts (and Numbers) of Application Review
Next, let’s talk about what happens in admission offices during the application cycle. There is no clear-cut consensus amongst an admission team when it comes to every single admission decision that is made. Nor is there always a clear distinction between those who have been admitted and those who have not. In reality, selections at colleges with a competitive admission process are much more gray area than that.
Let’s use Georgia Tech as an example. The majority of applications for first-year admission are read by at least two individuals. It’s not uncommon to see a student’s file reviewed four, five, or even six times, especially as we approach decision release and try to fit an incredible applicant pool within the constraints of our class capacity.
In our last admission cycle, we received nearly 60,000 applications for first-year admission. Our campus can accommodate a first-year class of approximately 3,900 students. A little more than 8,200 students were offered admission (sidebar: why were this many students admitted for a class that can hold fewer than half that number? Because predicting the enrollment behavior of 17- and 18-year-olds is NOT clear-cut! We have historical models to help us to make an educated guess on how many students will ultimately choose to enroll with us).
There are another 14,000+ students who, at some point in our review process, were identified by an application reviewer as being very competitive in our admission process, but ultimately did not receive an admission offer when decisions were released this year.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Our admission staff has read tens of thousands of files over our careers. We train throughout the year to provide a consistent review for each student. We have a strong sense of our programs and class limitations. And with all of this in mind, we wanted to admit nearly three times as many students as we have room for in our first-year class.
Why? Because the students that we see each year through the admission process are compelling individuals. All of them with their unique backgrounds, perspectives, talents, ambitions, accomplishments, and goals. They’re amazing! And we only see a tiny portion of the total number of students pursuing higher education (this past year, Common App reported more than 1.2 million students applied to colleges using their platform).
Counselors often talk about identifying applicants who have both the ability and willingness to do the work required of them in a college classroom through the admission process. At colleges with a competitive review, most of our applicants meet that baseline.
Beyond that, you’ll hear admission counselors mention selecting students who are “most competitive” in the applicant pool. Again, at Tech this past year, our initial review indicated that three times as many students as we can admit fit that description.
Same Student, Different Decision Outcomes
We haven’t even touched on the fact that colleges with comparable admit rates can make different decisions for the same applicant. Hopefully, at this point, you’re seeing that decisions aren’t clear-cut at a single institution. If you’re looking at multiple institutions, you’ll find they/we are not in concert with one another.
While there may be similarities in college profiles, the differences in our programs, student body size, priorities, and applicant pool dictate the decisions that are made. An offer of admission from one institution has no bearing on the decision that a different school will make. A student who sits in the position of watching a single, unchanged application receive a variety of decision outcomes across the institutions to which they’ve applied will find that there is no clear-cut, universal admission decision practice.
Tech received more applications this year than the most recent ones, and as a result, our admit rate decreased (quick reminder: we did not become a “better” university. Our programs are no “stronger” than they were in previous years. Receiving more applications means just that: more students applied. It is not a barometer for success at a college).
So, what’s the difference between the “top” 14% and 19% of an applicant pool when it comes to making admission decisions? Statistically, nothing. They are nearly identical populations, and any student falling in the top 14%, or 19%, or 25% is more than capable of coming onto our campus and having a tremendous impact. We would be lucky to have them on our campus.
What We Really Say Behind Closed Doors
As Georgia Tech has become more competitive for admission, I’ve noticed that a few phrases pop up regularly during committee review. Here are some that I find myself repeating during review season, especially when we’re looking at students who ultimately will not receive an admission offer from us. They might not be what you would expect:
“Our loss.”
“I wish we had more room in the class.”
“I want to call them and tell them that they are incredible. I hate that a deny decision is the only message they’ll receive from us.”
If you don’t receive the decision you’re hoping for, don’t interpret that as meaning you aren’t good enough. It means that based on the tiny sliver of a total person that we get to see in the application process, in the context of a pool of tens of thousands incredible individuals, and bearing the enrollment constraints of our campus, we were not able to offer you admission.
And, bluntly, that sucks. You know that, and we know that, too.
The idea of clear-cut “cans” and “cannots,” or “admits” and “admit-nots,” doesn’t exist in the holistic, competitive college review process. It’s part of the reason why colleges take several months to review applications. We’re evaluating, and re-evaluating (and re-re-evaluating) class limitations and student applications, and trying to reconcile the two.
And to make it even more complicated, sometimes the answer is “maybe,” otherwise known as “deferred.” Stay tuned next month for a deep dive on what that decision means and next steps if you find yourself waiting for a few more months.
Ashley has worked in the Georgia Tech Office of Undergraduate Admission since graduating from the Institute in 2010 with a B.S. in History, Technology, and Society. In her time with Georgia Tech, she has worked within first-year admission recruitment and review, Women’s Recruitment, and Dual Enrollment initiatives. For 9 years, she served as Tech’s representative on the West Coast, and recently relocated back to the Atlanta campus. As a life-long Yellow Jacket, Ashley’s love for Georgia Tech runs deep and she is passionate about assisting students and families navigate the college admission process.