<p>[The</a> Whole Applicant - NYTimes.com](<a href=“The Whole Applicant - The New York Times”>The Whole Applicant - The New York Times)</p>
<p>“Across the country, selective public colleges and universities are taking a page from their private counterparts and implementing what is commonly called a holistic or comprehensive admissions process.”</p>
<p>“A holistic evaluation, admissions officials say, allows the luxury of thoughtfully knitting together a multitalented student body as well as a diverse one.”</p>
<p>“It also counters the wave of grade inflation in American high schools that makes ranking applicants by a numerical index “more problematic,” says Philip Ballinger, director of admissions at the University of Washington, whose office “took the plunge” with the holistic approach five years ago.”</p>
<p>"For students, the evolution has meant less certainty. Colleges find themselves scrambling to explain the process to parents and high school guidance counselors who are newly anxious about a star student’s chances. “We try to be transparent, but still, the very nature of holistic review is not transparent,” says Christine N. Van Gieson, director of admissions at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “No one thing is going to get you in, and no one thing is going to get you out. The really top students don’t have a concern, but the middle group tends to worry.”</p>
<p>"The move toward holistic admissions comes as many institutions of higher education struggle with reduced budgets. The method is costly. The annual budget of the University of Washington’s admissions office grew by $250,000 to support the change. “We didn’t go to the Cadillac version, to be sure,” Mr. Ballinger says. “But we did have to do more hiring and really increase the staff during the application read season.” Five years ago, there were 15 to 20 readers during the peak period of December to March. That group has grown to about 70. “There’s training involved, and you have to assure that all these different readers are reading similarly,” Mr. Ballinger says. “It’s very time-consuming to make sure it’s being done well.”</p>