College Admissions

Part III of three parts

With so many excellent students applying to college, admissions officers joke that they should toss a stack of applications in the air, and the ones that land on the table would be admitted, the ones on the floor denied. From the outside, it sometimes looks like that is exactly how they make decisions. But the truth is that most admissions people carefully assess each student’s strengths and weaknesses as they build a class.

At a workshop with admissions officers from USC and Occidental College, a group of counselors reviewed two applications and discussed how potential students are evaluated.

The first student, from New England, had 1250 SAT scores, and SAT Subject scores of 760, 680 and 580. She had lots of AP and Honors courses. The admissions people noted that she had challenged herself, taking five academic solids each year, including two science courses senior year, even though science was not her strength.

But her transcript had a number of C grades, including two as a junior and two as a senior, lowering her GPA to 3.58.

This student was editor of her school newspaper, president of her senior class and captain of the volleyball team. She wrote a beautiful essay, and her English teacher described her as a gifted poet and one of the best students she’d taught in 15 years.

This student’s strengths included geographical diversity, leadership and the fact that she was a good writer. But the C grades, continuing into senior year, were a problem. At USC, she would be a spring admit at best.

The admissions officer from Occidental also found the C grades troubling. She believed the student would contribute to the college, but in a very competitive application pool, this one would be sent to committee for further evaluation.

The second student was a strong musician who was diagnosed as learning disabled and had minimal accommodations in high school. He had a cumulative 3.38 GPA, but earned higher grades during junior year. His transcript included some Honors and AP classes. SAT scores were 1270 and SAT Subject scores of 600, 620 and 590.

He played basketball and baseball throughout high school, and founded the jazz club. He wrote a nice, but not stellar, essay about his passion for music. School recommendations and college interviewer were enthusiastic about his motivation and character, while recognizing that he would not lead his class academically.

Admissions officers noted that while the student didn’t demonstrate much leadership, he did show consistency in his activities, staying with them for years, and indicating enthusiasm to continue the activities in college. Although this student only had one C each year, that was enough to possibly be a glitch.

But he would audition at USC, and if he had talent, the few C grades and SAT scores under 1400 would not keep him from being admitted. Occidental would want to see his first semester grades.

While these are just two examples of how college applications are evaluated, it’s clear that grades are extremely important, and a few mediocre marks, especially continuing into senior year, can sink an otherwise promising application. Students planning to apply to highly selective colleges can’t afford many glitches on their transcript. Seniors who are in the process of applying to competitive schools need to include some colleges where they are very likely to be admitted. Not because they wouldn’t be successful at very selective colleges, but there are just too many wellqualified students.

On a more positive note, sometimes a student does beat the odds. Last year, one of my students applied Early Decision to Georgetown and was deferred to Regular Decision. Few deferred students are admitted, so I insisted she apply to some other excellent, but less competitive, schools. She was ultimately admitted to Georgetown and received a great financial aid package.

Audrey Kahane, MS, is an independent college admissions counselor in West Hills. She can be reached at (818) 704-7545 or at audreykahane@earthlink.net