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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]1. Standardized the applications. Whether that's by the Common Application or something else, I don't know. But just managing all the different ways schools ask the same question adds to the time needed to manage all this.

2. Streamling the deadlines and ways to apply. Maybe just have rolling for the less selective schools, one form of early, and then regular. This ED1 and ED2 and priority this, etc. make the application period longer than it needs to be.

3. Limit the activity space (something already mentioned this and I think MIT does it). Have people list their top three activities. Let them write a couple sentences about each. It'll stop the people who think the longest resume wins.
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4. Make high schools calculate GPA the same way so kids know where they stand and so the average admitted GPA statistic is reliable. 
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5. Love the one essay idea mentioned above. I don't think it needs to be academic, but I don't think any college should be allowed to ask "why us" because it forces a kid to write a special essay just for that school. I like how the Common Application has one essay with 4-5 choices on it.

Those ask for an end to test optional know that just because you send something doesn't mean admissions has to use it, right?

Regardless of what you think about the SAT, test optional is admissions' way of telling you that they don't find test scores valuable in their processes.
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I'd go even further and replace GPA with class rank. Schools could determine it however they want, and colleges wouldn't be forced to compare a 3.9 on a 4 scale to a 4.3 on a weighted 5 scale to a 4.5, but with different weights... Instead, a kidding the 85% percentile at school A would be compared to a kid in the 92nd at school B [/quote]

From my understanding, the colleges actually recalculate the GPAs to standardize it and compare apples to apples.   They don’t directly compare different weighting schemes.  I remember asking our school counselor about a weighted GPA (our school reported only unweighted on a 100 scale), and she said not to bother because different colleges recalculate it differently anyway.  Some go as far as dropping the whole freshman year off.[/quote]

the problem is that they need data to recalculate. If they don't get many applicants from a particular high school and the school doesn't rank, they have no way of knowing what their 4.3 means in relation to other students at that class. I like ranking because it eliminates grade inflation and deflation [/quote]

They have the school profile for that.  Look up yours, it will tell you, among other things, how many AP classes they offer, and the distribution of grades for the most recent graduating class.[/quote]

They also get info from the school counselor and teacher recs on how your kid's schedule (and your kid) stacks up against others.

The thing that parents forget about (or don't like to think about) is that the high school provides info that helps colleges make their decisions. Take two kids with similar GPAs and test scores, one gets in, the other doesn't. Seems random! and parents gnash their teeth. Or maybe it was because Kid A had 3 ECs and Kid B only had two!! OMG, EC arms race!!

But really, what made the difference is that when the teacher sat down to write her letters of recommendation (for 13 kids), she had nothing but good things to say about both kids, both of whom she likes and both of whom she thinks will be successes in college. But one of those kids just impresses her a bit more than the other. And that comes through in her LORs.

Or the counselor knows that Kid A has had difficult home circumstances or medical issues or other challenges and mentions it in his write-up. Others might not know anything about it, but it becomes a "hook" for Kid A.

Etc.

OTOH, sometimes it really is just random! The college decides that it will accept only x% of schools from Admissions Counselor Z's region. She knows she has to come to the table with 25 applications to support. Will Kid A or Kid B be the 25th? They are really so similar....hmmm...well, this essay really was kind of...ok, Kid A. That's it, done.

So many parents act like college admissions is the great mystery of life, but it's really not all that complicated. But it is unpredictable for any given kid and that seems to make people of a certain ilk insane.

Relax. If you kid is in the position of wringing their hands over whether she will get into an Ivy League school, she is going to be fine wherever she goes.[/quote]

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