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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Listened to today's Admissions Beat:

The transcript is the most important (lead role). Scores are really not.....

“I can tell you, Lee, that in our admissions committee, we still have five person admissions committees that meet every day all winter to vote to admit students to Yale or not. It's why I have not been able to lose weight for decades because I sit in a room weeks at a time looking at applications. It's also my favorite part of the job.

I mean, what an honor to be able to read these incredible stories from these talented young people around the country and around the world. But in the admissions committee room, we will often pull up the transcript for the five-person committee to look at and to [b]examine to help us understand the story of a student's journey[/b]. We'll never look at the testing beyond just the preliminary glance at the start of the application file because I've never been in the committee room where someone said, oh my God, that collection of SAT scores is so compelling.

I want to vote to admit this to students. That's just not how it works.

Same. I think people are surprised by that. Emily, you're starting to laugh.”

From Admissions Beat: Data Dive into the Transcript and Testing, Oct 14, 2025

[/quote]

Reading this excerpt, my understanding is that they appear to say they are looking at the transcript as a story.  They look at the rigor, the course load, the selection of courses fitting the declared major.  Not just the GPA as a number.

But I don't believe what they said here.  [b]From our private, ivies don't care about the rigor of the courses at all.  They care about GPA as a number a lot more.  Kids taking 2 advanced courses vs 10 make no difference.  Multivariable Calculus doesn't move the needle.  [/b]

Certain schools outside ivies may practice reading transcript as a story, e.g., rigor.  But not ivies at our private.  GPA as a number is THE most important thing.[/quote]

Perhaps that's the rule at your HS? Are you a feeder (25-40% admitted to T20)?[/quote]

Yes, this may be just a private school thing (or may not be). But they AOs present it as if this is generally applicable. 
There are a few others on this board saying GPA as a number is the most important thing, so it's not uncommon.  [/quote]

I agree. They likely compare the performance of college students based on the high schools they attended. Students from rigorous high schools tend to be better prepared for college-level work.[/quote]

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