We are spending today in our committee on admission meetings! Here's the quick recap of how we got here... what's happened in our office since the November 1 Early Action deadline:

1. 3,500 EA applications arrived in our office (up about 300 from last year's Early Action number).

2. Applications entered into our computer system and sorted according to geographic territory/high school by our outstanding operations staff.

3. Lots and lots of mail pours in throughout the month of November, consisting of supporting credentials to our EA applications. These high school transcripts, letters of recommendation, SAT/ACT scores, first quarter and trimester grades, and other additional pieces are entered into our computer system and then physically matched up to their respective applications (a big thank you to our student workers and other support staff who literally spent weeks accomplishing this important task!).

4. Each admission counselor completes his or her "first reads." The 3,500 Early Action applications are divided up by geographic territory, so that each counselor is reading the applications from the areas we visited in the fall. Most of our 15 counselors had between 250-350 applications to complete a first review on.

5. After all applications have gone through the first read process, a second admission counselor takes a look at them, and either agrees or disagrees with the first reader's recommendation (to invite, defer, or deny the applicant).

6. When second reads have been completed on all applications, these files can go a number of different directions. Those at the very top and very bottom of the applicant pool are done, having received a final decision at this point. For the majority of applications that aren't at either end of the spectrum, the process continues. Some will go on to a third (and sometimes a fourth) reader. Nearly 600 other applications are considered by the entire admission staff at our committee on admission meetings, where we are today.

7. The applications being considered in committee are students who are competitive academically in our process, but are truly "at the margin" - during the EA process, they could be invites or defers (rarely are committee files denied, because students don't generally make it to committee without solid academic preparation/personal qualities). While we do talk about academics in committee (especially GPA progression/digression during high school and strength of the senior year curriculum), often times distinctions between similiar students are made by looking at personal qualities and non-academic pieces of the application.

So... that brings us up to date with where we are today. We have spent the past week in our committee review, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As we wrap up the EA review process, we will turn to production (and proofreading!) of decision letters over the next week. More details to come!