How would a top reach college choose 2000 from 10000 applicants?

Now that the applications are submitted, starting this brainstorming session.

If there are 10000 applicants in a bucket/pool, how would a great college (like Standford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UPenn, UChicago, Duke, etc.) select 2000 students considering GPA, ACT/SAT, Essays, Recommendation Letters, Diversity, fill up from all 50 States, minority, etc. etc. etc.?

Really curious to understand how colleges filter out applications and yet manage to maintain a “holistic” admission process.

If there are any admission counselors or ex-admission folks in the forum, please share your thoughts.

There are a couple of things. One is to take a first cut on grades, test scores, recommendations, and maybe essay quality. A key element of this is “can they do the work”? That probably cuts the pool at least in half.

Students with hooks (athlete, URM, legacy) get sorted off, and reviewed separately. An applicant from an under-represented state or country might get a boost, too. Admissions still has to believe they can do the work, though.

The reminding apps from the original pool are then reviewed looking for a “wow” factor – something that makes them stand out in admissions’ minds from other applicants. It can be a unique EC or accomplishment, a unique personal story, amazing academic accomplishment, or something else that makes the pay attention.

Typically a couple of people read each app. Some (probably most) top colleges use a scoring system. The top applicants are discussed in an admissions meeting, where decisions are made.

There are many books about college admission in the library by former admission officers and college advisers if you really want to learn the topic.

There are too many books and I am not particularly interested to spend to make someone else rich:-). I have time in hand to burn waiting for schools (top ones) to respond.

Hoping that there are folks in this forum who may have a similar interest to contribute (from experience) and brainstorm so that people like me can benefit and understand by discussion and not by simply reading someone else’s ideas.

If you have nothing to contribute, please feel free to refrain.

If you do have something that could be useful to others, here is a thread.

There are too many books, but you want people to go to the trouble to write it out for you here? You could go to the library, or a school GC may have some books.

OP: It’s “Stanford” NOT “Standford”.

There are also countless threads on this website explaining this. All free to read.

You can read them, and then develop specific, novel questions which people will probably be more receptive to answering.

^yes, this.

Didn’t realize that instead of contributing anything, people are more interested to find faults:-)

If there is nothing to contribute, feel free NOT to. That’s most helpful.

I found this old thread to be very interesting:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1626413-why-do-seemingly-perfect-students-get-rejected-from-ivies-p1.html

Actually, you’re getting several helpful contributions; just not the ones you were looking for. People have pointed you towards multiple resources that would give you the information you desire, as well as how to go beyond that information. You just don’t like that those contributions weren’t spoon-feeding you the information you desire.

“Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Learning how to find information yourself is a critical skill for those who wish to succeed at top schools.

OP: I didn’t mean to offense you. It just jumped out at me and wanted to let you know how it’s spelled, plain and simple. I didn’t ask questions like "Where is Standford located? or “I’ve never heard of that college before”.
I’ve seen before people misspelling that name.

Feel free to browse the following thread to get a feel of how people making spelling errors can be treated.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1512334-standford-freshman.html

Sometimes people are just looking to spark a conversation. Right op?

I think the flow above is right. Maybe the regional officer sorts their favorites before going to a committee (aside from the “points” leaders) to fight for them.

I would imagine them a committee is given a short synopsis them votes yes/no/wait for next round.

The wait for next round apps are where it might get interesting!

My research is done. I learnt a lot from this forum, especially how to fish. Read a lot of stuff and hopefully did my homework in having a strategy. I have put my bait. Waiting for the catch.

In the meantime, thought of starting some mind grilling exercise and see if this could be help to others.

Everyone is looking for a strategy but none looking at how the colleges look at this.

No other intention. If there are good ideas, please share. If none, I thank you for your attention.

That was a waste of a thread.

Not sure why people tend to respond if its a waste - btw, nice name: “mind the gap”. hope you pay attention to the gap between the words or the gap between the thoughts.

At the upper tier of schools, the term holistic should not be confused as unqualified. In fact, so many students reach a minimum inflection point, say 2200 SAT and 3.9 UW GPA, they can then tack to filling a class of diverse experiences, interests and backgrounds. The thicker or more dense the region (e.g. Manhattan or Orange County, CA) then level of competition exponentially rises.

There’s a 5 page thread on this exact topic that was started earlier this month and I remember reading a previous thread referencing a reddit AMA from a former Cornell admissions officer turned admissions consultant.

Thanks for the good responses. Its obvious some don’t like to respond but still comment:-). That is also an interesting experience.

When the mind spills without any bars, hindrances or obstacles, its expresses in the purest form - called innovation.

Everything is always IS. The apple had been coming down since time immemorial. Why do we give the credit to Newton? Its nothing new, for heaven’s sake.

So, are there many threads. Asking the same question is not a crime - maybe my stupidity and hoping the smart ones (if they truly are) will respond.

IMO, one simply graduating from an IVY or great school does not become great. The greatness is in their thinking, in their bigheartedness and not being shallow.

*I am disappointed in all of the above. If you think it is uninteresting, move on. The Terms of Service require that this is a welcoming environment. These kinds of comments do not comply. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what the OP asked, whether the information is available by searching the web, reading books, or any other means. None of those measures creates either a conversation or potentially fresh ideas. And are you all going to tell me that admissions criteria at these schools don’t shift somewhat all the time? Court cases and many, many other thread discussions would say that is not true, that there are many wrinkles that appear in the process, so a book can be out of date in a short time.

People ask questions that are easily available via a Google search all the time. Often, although unstated, they are looking for insight beyond the simplest of answers. Or they just (correctly) look at CC as another resource to find the answer, similar to going to a library. If no one wants to answer, they will be forced to go elsewhere. But why the compulsion to bash them for turning to CC as their resource of choice? Just because they created a thread, they are not forcing you to answer it. You act like they have created some burden for you somehow. If someone wants to answer it, that is their choice. If not, then like I said the thread will just die away.*