Best captured by Michelle Yeoh in the movie Crazy Rich Asians saying..."You will NEVER be enough..."

Holistic is the worst form of admission except for all the other forms that have been tried from time to time.

It's just a buzz word to help swaddle snowflakes.

Well, AA is basically dead now anyway. But you can thank Grutter v. Bollinger for the "holistic admissions" schtick. Michigan Law won that case basically by arguing that no "points" were assigned during the admissions process and rather applicants were looked at holistically with race merely being one piece of the puzzle. Ever since then, "holistic" has been the name of the game. It makes a it a lot harder to claim any one group was not treated fairly - because there are no set "standards" being applied in a logical fashion.

If you have top grades, difficult courses and high test scores you will get into an excellent college. It might not be Harvard. But you will be fine.

You don’t have a God given right to go to any college in the country that you want.

Anonymous wrote:It's means if you are not hooked, you are not getting in.

Definitely not.
You just need something special.
Do enough reading (hint: get off here) and you’ll see what that looks like for an ORM.

Hint: it’s not more math competitions.

Anonymous wrote:It's standardless admissions. And a double whammy when you add in Test Optional.

Huh?
Some schools have always been test optional.

Standardless?
No - they aren’t just looking for kids who test well. That’s boring.

It's means if you are not hooked, you are not getting in.

Anonymous wrote:You sound bitter.

You misspelled "realistic."

It's standardless admissions. And a double whammy when you add in Test Optional.

You sound bitter.

do something then... don't go to college

It's a license to discriminate in favor of whatever group(s) they like the most, without accountability.

+100

there's not a dang thing you can do about it.

That's pretty much it, right? Mainly it seems to be a term used as a catch-all CYA by the admissions office at many schools around the country.