“College admissions is an ever-evolving world, and for members of the Class of 2020, there is another application aspect to consider – the holistic option. The term “holistic admissions” refers to an application system that evaluates the candidate as a whole, including his or her mentality, not just a collection of his or her documents.” …
http://news.yahoo.com/3-holistic-college-admissions-trends-watch-140000233.html
I think this is a wonderful trend. Surely the students who can do well on these type of applications are those that have skills to be successful in college and in life. (I’m probably a bit biased, though, as the parent of an incredibly intelligent student whose high school transcript did not really reflect her abilities or likely success at college… )
I do, however, see potential for this sort of application to get abused. I can just see affluent parents providing funds for services that write, direct, coach and polish a video application or portfolio.
All in all, though, I’m glad for the increasing trend towards holistic admissions. I realize it cost the colleges much more since each application requires so much more time to evaluate - but that seems so much better than just accepting/rejecting applicants by the numbers.
I don’t see these as trends, more as outliers.
I don’t think the person who wrote that article understands what is Holistic Admission. It’s a euphemism for “standards may vary between applicants.”
Many things are cyclic; college admissions trends are likely one of them. Fifty years ago, holistic admissions was termed the “whole man concept” (yes, that was sexist, in my opinion). The more things change . . .
It’s impressive that Bard College has admissions staff to read more than 10,000 words of essay per applicant.
Students and parents should be glad that there are plenty of schools with stats-based admissions (or scholarships). If such did not exist, it would be much harder to find the cornerstone of any student’s application list – the safety.
. . . and how many scholarships would the total compensation packages for those additional “admissions readers” fund? I do not suggest Bard’s financial allocation is bad; rather, I simply wonder if senior College leadership made a quantitatively based optimization assessment that included ALL of the potentially valuable uses of this incremental capital?
Yep, holistic=opaque.
Now, I can see the rationale for holistic admissions, but remember that the Ivies first switched over to holistic admissions for one reason: to keep out Jews.
To me, “holistic” means – amazing stats, amazing rank…and then something extra and holisticticky on top of that.
But i’m feeling cynical these days.
I feel sorry for the faculty who eventually have to teach the ‘verbally gifted’ student who can make a video but can’t write. Good luck with that – as Dr. Phil used to say.
@Momzie
Would you rather have students who can write a novel but are zombies in the classroom?
I’m surprised that people are saying this isn’t a trend or even go as far to imply that it is a negative thing. Almost every college I visited in the college fair said “We use holistic admissions,” so I doubt it’s just a fad.
Comparatively, I would ask those who oppose holistic admissions how they would feel if we used a completely meritocratic system like China or most of Europe? In my opinion, the current system that we have is a good thing. In many of those other countries, students are not encouraged to explore extracurriculars because they take time away from studies. And things such as essays and recommendations can be a big indicator of one’s character and personality, which I think is just as important in forming a class.
Being CC users, I am sure you have come across those who have excellent grades and test scores, but have a self-entitled personality (ex: I came across a user who said “I will milk the system for all its worth”) and those who have come across incredible adversity to get to where they are, despite having slightly below average test scores. In my opinion, holistic admissions can help close the education gap by taking into consideration things such as first generation students, learning disabilities, low-income backgrounds, other talents, and important personality traits that are an indicator of success outside of just grades and test scores.
I have no doubt there are those out there that could still “play the game,” but from my experience, essays are much more difficult to “coach” and admissions officers are good at sniffing out whose work has been heavily edited. And if we switched to simply grades test scores, one could argue that test scores can be a result of heavy “coaching” as well. Holistic admissions, at least, takes into account multiple factors.
Going into college, I had very little appreciation for this, but now that I am in college I have a huge appreciation for how the admissions committee tries to bring in a class of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. I have met people who have had revolutionary impact on the communities they came from, people that are fluent in 4 or more languages, people who came from inner-city schools where the majority don’t even think about college, and those who have triumphed despite living with a learning disability and being raised by a single mother. I am constantly learning from them. All of that is worth more than grades and a test score, I think.
@shawnspencer: I wholeheartedly agree with your excellent post, although we must be careful to optimize continuously the balance between subjective and objective factors.
Do you think Akamai and Fair, Isaacs will team to develop the “holisticacity verification” system, which analyzes video submittals and outputs a rating score for the colleges to use as “degree of holisticacity”, or do you think they will compete for the contract?
@TopTier Ahh I completely agree with you on that. Balance is key and I think grades and test scores do play an important role in determining whether a student is ready for the academics of that particular college, but should be taken in “context,” which I believe is important. When I wrote my original post, I was referring to more so holistic admissions in general, as it is done by many colleges today, than the three practices referred to in the article.
Upon closer inspection of the “trends” referred to in the article, however, I would be very nervous admitting a student based on a two minute video explaining their academic drive while completely ignoring one’s academic past. I don’t believe these methods are labeled correctly. Instead of “hollistic” admissions, they may be more appropriately titled “alternative” admissions. Your record in high school is one piece of the puzzle and I can’t imagine not including them in a review of a student. Hollistic admissions means taking these factors in context, not ignoring them completely.
A great post! too many students think admission is a race, and the first to 4.0/2400 should win
It all comes down to the Amercan ideal of the well-rounded student. Personally, I sometimes wish schools wouldn’t be quite so holistic. I have a very quiet daughter who, while happy to participate, doesn’t want to be a leader and join clubs. Yet she feels compelled to because she knows that most competitive colleges view ECs as important. Meanwhile, she works her bottom off to do well in school and is very intelligent. She spends a lot of time reading and doing solitary things,though she is active with her group of friends. Don’t colleges want quiet kids who listen? Does everyone have to be a leader? I am not trying to be negative, but the holistic thing doesn’t necessarily make life fairer for everyone. I know my D is in the minority, but no college would look twice if she wrote “book reading” and “coding as a hobby” on her application.
I don’t understand the opting out of tests part.
Admissions committees still have the option of overlooking the test scores of students who didn’t test well but have other strengths.