<p>Hello. I was curious about how the admission officers differentiate the group of students into specific ‘pools’ in college admission.</p>
<p>I heard ethnicity/nationality play a part. Any other factors do they take consider, does anyone know?</p>
<p>Where have you heard that? At most schools, this is evidently false, and people who have heard otherwise have either a) never sat on an admissions council or b) have a flawed sense of how it works. Besides, there was a Supreme Court case that outlawed considering race or nationality in such a fashion. While it can be one of the factors to increase diversity, blatantly splitting them into groups for purposes of admissions would place too much of an emphasis on that factor, and thus is not done on admissions committees. </p>
<p>I agree, that you are not getting correct information, or highly exaggerated information.</p>
<p>When there have been reporters sitting on admissions committees, you often see students grouped by high school If you are an international student, you are likely in the pool of internationals. They may further be grouped by country.</p>
<p>If you want to look at factors that are Very Important, Important, Considered, Not Considered, look at the Common Data Set, section C7.</p>
<p>At Amherst, for instance, race and geographical location are Considered.
<a href=“https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/CDS1314_C_Freshman_Admission_0.pdf”>https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/CDS1314_C_Freshman_Admission_0.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you search youtube, you can find videos of Amherst admissions committee clips. Also NPR and other news outlets have many stories and interviews with Amherst admissions officials.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information! :)</p>
<p>You’re discussing “category admissions” as referred to in the bottom third of this essay:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/admission_messages.html</a> </p>
<p>There’s no hard and fast rule how they differentiate between who goes into what pools. It’s malleable and up to the schools (the few who practice this).</p>
<p>Note Dean Marthers’ citations: “Books such as Elizabeth Duffy and Idana Goldberg’s Crafting a Class, former Stanford admission dean Jean Fetter’s Questions and Admissions, and former Santa Cruz, Vassar, and Bowdoin dean Richard Moll’s Playing the Private College Admissions Game peer into the hidden reality of category admission.”</p>
<p>@shawnspencer, please read this informative essay</p>