How do colleges make their decisions?

College Application Review – Academic Qualifications

First a college will simply review your application materials to make sure that all requirements have been met and all the documents are present. If they are not, then your application simply won’t be considered. Once the college has confirmed that your application is complete, it will review your academic qualifications. A review of a student’s academic qualifications is the most important influencing factor in most of the decisions that schools make. If took advanced courses in high school, earned excellent grades, and did well on standardized tests like the SAT, then your application will immediately look fairly strong, and your application will be considered for closer review. For some very large schools that have a great number of applicants every year, this step in the process is done using a kind of formula that calculates which applicants fall within the basic standards for the school.

College Application Review – Other Considerations

If you academic qualifications meet the college’s requirements, it will begin to look at more qualitative aspects of your application, such as your essay, recommendation letters, extracurricular activities and so on. The college will try to find if you will be a good fit in their particular academic and social environment.

Other factors may be considered if the college is looking to increase the number of a certain kind of student at its school. Many colleges in the university are interested in increasing the number of students that are of an under-represented ethnic background at the school. Other colleges are especially looking for students that have some kind of unusual or exceptional talent, particularly if it is an athletic or artistic ability.

College admissions are not done by a single person or, in some cases, even by a single small group of people. A large office may be involved in the process of reviewing applications, weeding out unsuitable candidates and then considering the rest on the basis of what the school’s own requirements and priorities. In many countries, like the United States, there is no universal national standard for deciding which students are accepted and which are not. Even college is different and each has a different vision of the kind of academic community it wants to create.

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