Overheard in Committee — Remove the Shroud of Secrecy

Admit It!  If given the opportunity to be a fly on the wall of admission committee deliberations you would do so.  You’re not alone; many people would likely do the same.  There’s this aura of mystery surrounding committee deliberations but the shroud of secrecy is no longer.  These “Overheard in Committee” blogs are here to demystify the process and to give you, our prospective students and families, some insight into the depth of our discussion and the lengths we go to to make what are difficult yet rewarding decisions.

Overheard in Committee today: “How many AP courses does the school offer?”

Context is important.  It’s a key part of how we make decisions.  You don’t exist in a vacuum and neither should your application.  Your high school environment helps to inform how we evaluate your transcript.  Often the most crucial element of transcript review is determining rigor; how difficult a schedule did you amass during your four years.  Did you take the most challenging courses available to you?  Are you prepared to thrive in collegiate classrooms?

So today we were looking at a student who had taken only two AP courses … sounds a tad low right?  Well we came to discover the school only offered three, so taking two is pretty what we call “bangin’” (our slang for a kick-butt program).  Now two AP courses when a school offers 20 plus is a different story (what’s the opposite of bangin’ – we haven’t come up with a word for that yet).

There is no prescribed number of AP/IB/Dual Enrollment Courses that a student should take.  There are times, when for a multitude of reasons, we will take the student who has taken two AP courses where 20 are offered and when we won’t take the student who has taken almost if not all of the APs offered.  That’s because the rigor of your program is only one component of many.  The point is that context is important to our review.  Context for your transcript, context for your extracurricular activities, context for your life.  Context is central, crucial, critical.

Okay enough with the alliteration.  Back to Committee (yes using Committee along with the other “C” words was intentional).  Sorry, after more than a week of Committee deliberations there’s only so much smart humor you can expect.

Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission

Categories: Admission, Faculty & Staff Blogs
14 Comments
  1. curious
  2. Admit It!
  3. The mom
  4. Admit It!
  5. L.
  6. Admit It!
  7. prnt23
  8. Admit It!
  9. jojodancer1119
  10. JK
  11. Alexis
  12. Alexis
  13. Admit It!
  14. Admit It!

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