Thank you to everyone who has posted comments and questions over the past week! One of the most popular questions has been to ask if I could post an "invited student" profile and explain what we saw (and what we were looking for) in our Committee on Admission meetings. So, here you are...

First of all, here are the statistics that everyone has been requesting: Overall (both Early Action and Regular Decision), we received just about 9,800 applications for a freshman class of around 960 students. Just from looking at those two numbers, it is clear that this was a very competitive year at PC, made even more so by the overall caliber of the applicant pool-- the overwhelming majority of the students who have applied have the academic ability to be successful in our classrooms. However, we do have the limitation on the size of the freshman class, and we must somehow work our way from the 9,800 applicants down to the 960 students who will enroll. As you can surely imagine, the review process was very difficult for the admission staff and this was the most competitive year in our history (with an acceptance rate of about 40%).

What were we looking for? Well, as I have written countless times (you can go back and check the archives!), we have a very holistic review process but the academic portion of the review is the most important. We were looking for that combination of a strong curriculum and strong GPA in the demanding courseload. I know that everyone will be interested in what the average GPA for invited students was, but before I post that, please understand this: The average invited student GPA is just that-- the average. There are students who were admitted with both higher and lower GPAs... there were also students who were not admitted with higher and lower GPAs. Remember, there are many other factors that come into play beyond just a student's overall GPA. Having said all of that, the average invite GPA was just a hair below an "A-" on an UNWEIGHTED scale.

On a side note, although we do recalculate GPAs and look at them on an unweighted scale, GPA is never looked at by itself... GPA is always considered in the context of the curriculum the student chose to take at their high school. One more time: Strength of curriculum and GPA are looked at hand-in-hand throughout the entire process.

Though the average invited student GPA was just about an "A-," please also understand that there are hundreds of students who achieved around an "A-" but were placed on the waiting list. Why? Simply because there are so many more qualified applicants than there are spaces available in the class. This is why we emphasize time and time again that, although academics are incredibly important, we are looking beyond the high school transcript at the subjective factors to make these decisions, and the students who have performed at a high level academically (that aforementioned unweighted "A-" in a strong advanced-level curriculum) and stand out in some way beyond their academics are the students who were most likely to be accepted.

How did students stand out beyond the classroom? Frankly, in a lot of different ways... Certainly the Student Council President is impressive to see but so too is the first generation college student who works at a part-time job for 30 hours a week and still achieves an "A-" in the classroom... Well-written and thought-out essays could also make a student stand out from the other applicants... People who have shown a deep and sincere passion for an activity or organization, who have demonstrated true leadership... Glowing letters of recommendation from counselors and teachers that go well beyond the generic form-letter... Students who have had truly unique experiences or have persevered in the face of a tragic situation... Completion of the PC Supplemental Essay Question, which many students chose not to complete this year... There are many different ways for a student to shine outside of the classroom, and I wouldn't say that any one is "better" than any other one. But the point is that in the context of our extremely competitive pool, having the "average invite GPA" is far from a guarantee of admission.

I know I have written a lot and so I will stop here for today... I will continue my thoughts about the process as the week goes on and hopefully will be able to answer all of the questions that you have. More to come soon!

P.S. Liberal Arts Honors Program invitations were not mailed with decision letters. They will go out this week.