You may be skeptical, but it’s really not all that difficult. Applications start arriving in September and they begin reading immediately. (Some people incorrectly believe that they wait until the application deadline to begin - not at all true). So they have four months to read.
They hire some score of temp readers (all schools do including my alma mater, for which I served as one for a time) in addition to all the full-time staff, and some faculty who may be pulled in as well. Not at all a stretch to think for a school of this size they’ll have 100 readers in total during the season.
Four months = roughly 80 work days. 65,000 applications, 100 readers = 8 applications read, per day, per reader. That’s ample time for them to give each application at least two reads, meet in committee to discuss, revisit, etc. And, the math is even simpler to achieve because there will be “some” more or less instant rejects from the 65,000.
I understand the desire to impose some sort of easily understandable rationale to the seeming randomness. But at the end of the day they have X seats and far more than X qualified candidates. Admissions job is to build a community, which thus involves all sorts of difficult choices. But the applications are reviewed.
For well-funded and professionally managed admissions departments, the issue is really not “how can they read everything”, it’s more about maintaining a level of consistency across the reader population vis a vis the university’s recruiting goals.
And, even the best processes are faced with making hair-splitting decisions between essentially equally qualified applicants.
So, to bring this back to the original question - does it matter if I submit 250 words supporting my application? - ask yourself, do I want to chance it that the hair is split on this?
Oh in the context of nominally optional application items, to my mind literally nothing is optional. I would never leave a bullet in the chamber lest I look back with regret.
(Btw readers do get extensive training, at least at my alma mater).
FYI, UCLA pays $1350 to read 500 applications… so unless UMich pays alot more, by your calculations, it would take the reader 63 days to get paid $1350. $21/d or $3/hr to read apps…lol
I suspect they are cranking through these at least 50 apps per day spending more time on some and less on others. that would get them to $17/hr
UMich has done a decent job of explaining why they have introduced this ECI form.
Traditionally, a lot of applicants will send them offline updates and recommendation letters. This form allows for equity among all applicants having an opportunity to provide any significant updates since application submission. It’s also optional, so if you’re confident in the strength of your original application, you can chose to not submit it, or respond with just a few lines expressing your continued interest.
A weak application + strong ECI !> a strong application + missing/light ECI
Just try to positively look at the rational of the ECI , and the effort it’s saving for both applicants and readers. Don’t for a moment assume that typically applicants don’t hound AOs with additional information—just because they don’t say it here.
I read somewhere that UCLA hires 300 readers for approx 140-150k applications. The apps are reviewed multiple times. Apps start arriving in August, decisions late March.
Think of the scoring process as a multi-variable summation. The written narratives (most max out at 600 words, top level schools ask for 2-6 essays) are only one set of variables, granted these are likely the most subjective, but with adequate training on what to look for i still don’t see the time or quality as the issue.
The non-essay data can be summarized and scored by computer.
The issue is really in matching the scores with the institution’s goals.
Of course. The point isn’t that they literally fill their days reading applications and taking all the time in the world. It’s that there’s way more than enough time to do so. IOW “reading all the applications” isn’t remotely a problem.
Having been a reader, I can tell you that it takes no more than 15 minutes (and often less) to read all written materials twice and write your notes. The hard data stuff is mostly contextualized by the regional AO, so, though you see it, you don’t have to “worry” about it quite as much.
I guess what I don’t really understand is why they don’t just outright reject more apps initially (rather than defer)… this applies to USC as well… there are some apps that they run through which clearly don’t qualify, why bring more work to the RD round? Stanford, on the other hand, rejects most REA apps deferring only those who have a chance.
USC does not deny any apps in EA. USC’s EA option is new. Historically, USC did not offer an early result option, but had an early deadline for scholarships, such that students who were up for potential scholarships received their admission early and then everyone else had to wait. Their EA option is really just a different name for their merit scholarship process.
That may change next year when USC offers ED for a couple of majors, a weird but interesting way to experiment with ED.
My guess is the heavy lifting is done by EA decision date, and they have a preference for letting down applicants in a way that has a less immediate sting. But who knows?
Plenty of top level schools make a more drastic cut. The UCs really have one cut. The people who get “early” decisions count in the hundreds per UC.
Agreed, particularly for highly selective schools, deferring/waitlisting so many applicants doesn’t seem to be making sense.
On the other hand, only if applicants understood that the “holistic” admissions is simply a lever schools leverage to justify their admits based institutional priorities, most of the non-hooked applicants without top-end stats wouldn’t even apply in the first place.
That was in context of the ever increasing application numbers, wherein many mid stats folks apply in the hopes of “holistic” admissions coming to their rescue.
It’s never going to be an easy admit even for high stat folks—but those are the only pool where rest of the stuff like essays/recommendations/ECs count, and hence the lottery.
The same question of “Does every application get read before the EA release date?” has been asked every year since I’ve been here. UMich got it done when the EA release date was pre-Xmas.
BTW, I don’t know if this still holds true in 2025, but in the past, an enrolled UMich freshman could request to see their admissions file and how they were scored.