Reviewing An Application - Step #6: Making a (first) Decision/The Multiple Review Process
I hope that my postings over the past week have given you some insight into how we review an application at PC. In addition to everything I have mentioned so far, we also take a close look at a student's PC Supplemental Form and additional PC-specific statement. While we get a lot of very pertinent information from the Common Application, we are also very interested in your specific match and fit to us at Providence College. The Supplemental Form asks PC-specific questions, obviously, that help us to get a sense of your "PC fit." As with the Common Application essay, we hope that you have taken the appropriate time and put the appropriate effort into your PC supplemental essay to give us a sense of why you think Providence is the right fit for you.
Our sample applicant, Sarah Student, has done a very nice job with her PC Supplemental Essay, talking about her interest in a liberal arts curriculum (and making some nice connections between our core curriculum here at PC and some of the courses she's taken at the high school level), her interest in continuing to be involved in community service at PC, and her very positive campus visit, which was a major reason for her interest in PC.
After completing my review of Sarah's application, I decided to recommend a decision of "invite" for her, as someone who I see as a very strong academic and personal fit to Providence College. Along with stating my decision on our Applicant Worksheet, I also must state my reasoning behind it because, although Sarah's application has received a very thorough read from me, the review process for her application file is far from over. As I have stated many times in this blog, all applications receive multiple reads in our process, and many of them make their way to our Committee on Admission, where all 15 of our admission counselors have a vote in the final decision. So, Sarah's application moves on to a second (and possibly a third) reader, who can agree with my decision or recommend a different outcome. For the students who fall in the middle of our applicant pool (i.e. the students who are not a clear-cut "invite" or "deny"), our Committee on Admission meetings allow their stories to be heard by our entire counseling staff...
Our Early Action Committee meetings have started this week, and we are currently in the midst of talking about hundreds of really outstanding students (making for some very tough decisions!). More to come soon! Stay tuned!
Comments
As a parent particularly interested in the selections process, I find your blog informative and reassuring. Thank you for demystifying this process which is the source of such anxiety for so many students and parents alike.
Posted by: Jeff L. | December 10, 2007 4:54 PM
I know this question comes a bit far into your blog, but how many applicants from the Early Action Applicant pool do you accept? Is there a set limit?
Posted by: Brendan F. | December 11, 2007 7:14 PM
Hi Brendan:
That's a very good question! The answer for right now, honestly, is that we are not exactly sure yet how many students we will be taking Early Action. Yes, there will be a limit, and the reason for that is because we don't want to completely fill the class with students who have applied EA and leave no spaces for the many qualified applicants who will apply in January at the Regular Decision deadline. At the same time, we would like to accept as many of the qualified Early Action applicants as possible --it's hard to turn away a student who we see as a great match to PC simply because we have run out of spaces... but inevitably, that is what will happen, because so many more qualified candidates apply for admission than we have space for in the freshman class. So, it is a fine line we are walking and we will know more in the coming days as we wrap up our Committee on Admission meetings. The hundreds of files we have reviewed (and continue to review) in Committee show us the true depth of the EA applicant pool and will have some bearing on how many students we will be able to accept Early Action.
Last year, we had just about the same number of Early Action applications (just under 3,200) and accepted a little more than 1,400 of them last December. So, I hope that gives you some idea of where we will be... More updates to come soon!!
*Scott
Posted by: Scott Seseske | December 12, 2007 8:44 AM