Yeah, it may vary by office, but my understanding is the most typical process for non-rolling early admissions is after the deadline, the Admissions Office staff batches out the applications however they like to do that, and sends them to the readers. These days there may also be some sort of initial quick look, possibly human but possibly also AI-based, before they get sent out to the readers. But they apparently tend to wait to have the whole set largely in front of them before doing all that.
100%. In fact the full dicussion there includes how Yale intentionally shifted from deferring more to rejecting more as a way of communicating more useful information to applicants. By implication if Yale was communicating different information with different policies over time, then of course so are different colleges communicating different information with different policies at the same time.
As one more wrinkle, I have seen more than once now a reference to how colleges apparently can see when you started your Common App application to their college, and they sometimes MIGHT see a very late start to an application as indicating less underlying interest. That does NOT mean you need to actually submit the application early, but it is more a suggestion if you start it at 11:50 and submit at 11:59, they MIGHT read something into that, versus starting it a month in advance even if you also submit at 11:59.
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How about the one suggesting that half (or more) engineering majors fail to graduate in the major, when given in a reply to a top-end student acing advanced math and science whose activities show a strong interest in designing things using math and science?
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Related to engineering, the one that gets me is “You can study engineering anywhere as long as it’s ABET accredited. Different programs will get you to the same place.” that never quite gets combined with “Only 25% of engineering graduates actually work in engineering.”
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The OP has explained their purpose for this thread. If you do not enjoy it, time to move on. It is not time to insult the OP or other posters or to take any post personally. Thanks for your understanding.
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A platitude I’ve seen recently “you should go to the most selective/prestigeous school you can get into.” For a whole host of reasons, I strongly disagree with that as general advice. Makes sense for some, but not something I’d generally recommend as an approach to choosing a college.
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I don’t know the genesis of that one, but that’s something Jeff Selingo, the author/NYT journalist, is always saying.
Bingo! That is where I recently heard it. I generally like what he is doing in trying to get folks to think about colleges differently (buyers and sellers) or more broadly (his latest book). But I don’t agree with this quip.
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I agree with you in disagreeing with that as a general recommendation.
However, it does seem to be a popular notion (sometimes implied) among students and parents who post here (including parents who will only pay for “top ___” universities), and is reflected in yield rates when stratified by admitted students’ credentials (“overqualified” admits are less likely to matriculate than those who were reaching for the college – hence the use of “level of applicant’s interest” by some colleges).
Maybe Jeff and others think that ‘of course that group of colleges you are picking the most prestigious from you’ve already weeded out ones that aren’t a fit’. Maybe not, maybe he really does think everyone should apply to several reaches and then rank all the admissions and take the top ranked one.
My daughter looked at a lot of LACs because she was being recruited to them. Highest was Smith, which does have engineering. She liked Smith’s engineering dept. but pretty much hated everything else about it. She had a lot of pressure from my family to go there (my father and brother had attended UMasss) but none from me (I also didn’t like Smith). It would have been a disaster for her. A friend who went there only lasted one year (I think she may have picked it for its rank and a family connection).
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Can we see that attribution to Selingo in context? It doesn’t sound like something he’d say considering that he’s been a pretty staunch advocate of going to schools based on fit and NOT on prestige. His latest book even highlights a student that transfers from Columbia to Minnesota and is much happier for the change.
This said, I agree that “go to the most prestigious school you get into” would absolutely be an admissions platitude that would annoy me too.
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This post has a clip where he says that, around the 5:00 minute mark:
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Thanks! I managed to miss it in that thread.
ETA: Even though I then liked a subsequent comment of yours about that comment, lol!
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When I first read this, I was so indoctrinated in the concept. Now I have three years to unpack this and now find it a bit cringey.
I get the idea is to do what you love and let things happen. But I find there is also a psychological undertone: You got into a school doing what you love –told you so. You didn’t get into a school, but at least you got to do what you love – still a win…
Not saying this is bad advice, it still is. I just …
I detect that undertone in things like the Inside the Yale Admissions Office Podcast as well.
These folks on some level know at the end of the day, they are going to be rejecting like 19 out of 20 of their applicants. Even more will have started at a younger age with dreams of attending their college, but ended up discouraged from even applying by what happened with grades and test scores and such.
As a result, I think they want to make sure the advice they give doesn’t end up harming all those kids. And that after the trying and failing, at least the ones who followed such advice won’t regret how they spent their high school years.
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I will note the April 2026 report from Yale about trust in higher education does suggest changing their undergraduate admissions to address the “19 rejected out of 20” problem. Of course, that stated good intention is overwhelmed by difficulties in implementation…. like, what practical changes can be imposed that would not make the current (admittedly subpar) system even worse. There is another Yale committee about to issue a report on this particular topic: Presidential Council on Yale College Admissions | Office of the President
See page 13 here from the April report: https://president.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2026-04/Report-of-the-Committee-on-Trust-in-Higher-Education.pdf