WILDLY fluctuating admissions results (Somebody Please Explain)?

Applying to College
41

<p>Here’s the thing with extremely selective schools (like the ones you’re saying you’re getting a strange pattern of decisions from): Your results look like they pulled names out of a hat.</p>

<p>Schools going about the process like Amherst may well have almost literally pulled your name out of a hat (see the story NPR did on their admissions process). And even when they’re not actually picking at random, the process comes down to something that looks from the outside as if they’re picking at random because they’re considering a huge variety of variables, many of which are subjective.</p>

<p>When the number of highly qualified applicants so greatly exceeds the number of applicants who will be accepted, things get messy, and decisions look like they’re all over the map for any one student. That’s to be expected.</p>

42

<p>“The quality of an essay does not always increase with the time spent on it”</p>

<p>Ding ding, we have a winner.</p>

<p>It’s about smart work, not more work. 30 hours of smart work can be a great investment of time. But 1 hour of smart work might get you further than 25 hours of useless work. Most college essays are bad because they are overwrought and cliched. Wading further and further into that morass does not help you.</p>

43

<p>Always amazing how many ways (and times) the same thing can be said on these threads. lol</p>