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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]They dont read 50k applications. They have criteria based on which they eliminate 3/4. [/quote]

Simply not true. At many of the most prestigious colleges and universities, they readily admit about 2/3 or applicants are academically qualified. And the apps do get read.

Some review notes on meetings with top school admissions:
"80% of applicants are considered academically qualified to attend (so about 25K of the 37K applications.
99% are in the top ten % of their high school class.

THE PROCESS
There is a regional reader (in this case she covered three states plus NYC) who does initial processing of about 100 to 120 applications per week. (Other colleges the reader may be reviewing hundreds per day!)
She sends most to a 2nd reader, unless the student is  unusually weak; examples are simple one sentence answers to questions, no specific U interest. (But this didn't seem to weed out a huge percentage)
After 2nd reader, returns to the regional reader.
Then goes to committee, which usually consists of 5 to 12 people, including (usually) the dean of admisions.
Each reader gives about a 30 second summary of the student.
The final say is the dean; it's not a democracy!"[/quote]

In a book that people often tout on here . . . I can't remember the name ("Who gets into college" or something like that) I recall that it is said about 8 min. are spent on the first round of applications. After the months of writing, assembling information, etc. on top of getting recs, taking tests . . . then to spend MINUTES on them. It's insulting.[/quote]

What would you regard as a "non-insulting" amount of time? How many more people would they need to hire to read tens of thousands of apps in that longer time?

The fact of the matter is that most American high school kids really aren't all that different from each other. A short read is probably all that's necessary.[/quote]

In the town where I am from there are actually two youth orchestras.  There is the real one run by actual musicians and then there is a fake one started by the parents of children who didn’t get into the real one. the fake one has a name that sounds more impressive to people that don’t know. the fake one also runs a concerto competition every semester with five winners, so that every child in the fake orchestra can claim that they won the concerto competition.  what concerns me about the five minute read is that it’s much easier to pull a fast one and package your child as a concerto contest winner from the fake youth orchestra and it’s doubtful that someone who was hired as a temp and he’s getting paid by the hour is going to have the in-depth knowledge to know the difference between the two orchestras in an area. I’m sure the same thing goes on with sports teams and debate teams, and other types of extracurriculars. If there were smaller numbers of applicants and they were all read  by actual full-time admissions people there would probably be if you were opportunities for lying an exaggeration because you would expect these people to catch these things[/quote]

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