| College admissions offices are mysterious entities. | | | | Most colleges have regional review cycles (the case |
| Most high school students have no idea how they | | | | for most Ivy League schools) - which means that |
| work, who they are, and yet these offices hold the | | | | there are specific people assigned to regions of the |
| key to getting into Harvard. | | | | U.S. and foreign countries to review all applications |
| Below, I'll demystify college admissions offices and | | | | coming from that region. This helps application |
| describe a few inside secrets about them. | | | | readers build location-specific knowledge |
| 1) They are not a bunch of old, white-haired people | | | | 4) Borderline candidate decisions are usually made by |
| with tweed jackets sitting in a room smoking cigars | | | | committee - which means that on certain days, you |
| while reading your Common Application. In fact, most | | | | may get into Yale, but on others, you'll be waitlisted. |
| college admissions offices are comprised of relatively | | | | This may worry you - but instead of focusing on |
| young college graduates who went through the | | | | things out of your control, focus on what you CAN |
| admissions process themselves not too long ago | | | | control - your essays, your teacher |
| 2) College admissions committees do not throw a | | | | recommendations, your extracurricular activities. If |
| dart on the wall to determine who gets into | | | | you have a strong enough application - and I provide |
| Stanford, who goes on the waitlist, and who is | | | | a lot of last-minute college application tips on my blog |
| rejected. The deliberation process is long, arduous, | | | | - you will maximize your chances of going to your |
| and can seem arbitrary, but is actually fairly technical | | | | dream school |
| and numbers-based | | | | Hope that helps! |
| 3) Each school has a different deliberation process. | | | | |