Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic if they have undergrads and grad students reading the essays.

Why is that pathetic? Because they treat their students like capable adults? I’m pretty sure the students are smart enough to handle it.

I do not think it's "pathetic" it can be challenging. University of X had an issue with student helpers in about 2007 where one was denying applications, because she did not like first names of applicants. She thought it was funny. Think large state university. Anyway she had been in the department for three years before someone noticed.

Urban myth or reality, parents will never know.

I heard Richard Gere was reviewing applications. Guess we’ll never know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic if they have undergrads and grad students reading the essays.

Why is that pathetic? Because they treat their students like capable adults? I’m pretty sure the students are smart enough to handle it.

I do not think it's "pathetic" it can be challenging. University of X had an issue with student helpers in about 2007 where one was denying applications, because she did not like first names of applicants. She thought it was funny. Think large state university. Anyway she had been in the department for three years before someone noticed.

Urban myth or reality, parents will never know.

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic if they have undergrads and grad students reading the essays.

80% of colleges do this. Remember the math- number of applications does not equal number of available staff. It's just not possible for especially large universities to read them all. Anyone who thinks otherwise does not have a brain. It's not complicated.

I know DC parents are appalled at this thought, LOL....

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations PP. Best $320,000 you'll ever spend!

If the mom is a Chicago Public School employee, she won't pay a dime. All CPS employee kids who get into U of C go for free. Mine does!

So is it true that if you're deferred ED at Chicago you can then apply again ED2?

My friend said her kid was doing this, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me - why would they admit you in January if they didn't admit you in December?

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic if they have undergrads and grad students reading the essays.

Why is that pathetic? Because they treat their students like capable adults? I’m pretty sure the students are smart enough to handle it.

I think the Gatekeepers book has forced many colleges to up their game in terms of how they deal with applications.

Even if they haven't:

6 x 40,000 is 240,000 minutes or 4000 hours or 100 weeks. Spread that over an ad com of 20. It's really pretty doable.

Then what really happens is that they curve the times per application. The bottom 10k don't even get 1 min. The next 20k might get 2 min.

That leaves 190,000 minutes or 19 min per application to pick 2000 out of 10k.

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic if they have undergrads and grad students reading the essays.

NO, they hire contract readers to make the first cuts.

Anonymous[b wrote:]Read The Gatekeepers. It give you an accurate picture of admissions at Wesleyan. It is non-fiction. They read the essays.

[/b]


Maybe at Wesleyan but not at a lot of schools. They simply can't. EAch application gets a max reading of six minutes. First the hired readers scan the application and mark the file if the applicant is a URM/Athlete/Legacy/possible big donor/low-income/ first generation, etc. And they calculate the GPA and assess based upon the high school's submitted profile where the candidate sits in his or her class and then the test scores - so three items only. Many applicants don't get past this stage. Only after an assessment is made as to number of applicants do they even go to the actual committee after a cut-off is established for certain classes of applicants. Then to the person in charge of the region. The cull through and might read an essay but only if the applicant has the scores, GPA or whatever else the school is looking for. Finally to committee. Six minutes total and that's for a SLAC. Universities, which get 40K+++ applications don't even give the applications that much. And of course they will tell you they read the essays because that's part of the marketing hype.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to grad school there. I assure you that UChicago reads essays - current students and Admin officers. I spent a lot of hours reading admission essays as a student admissions volunteer.

Yes, students read them. DC alum think the college counselors are waiting with bated breath for their DC essays.

My kid's ED acceptance letter referenced details of his essay in saying what they liked about his application. I was surprised that they (student volunteer or whoever) put that much effort into customizing an acceptance letter, but it definitely made clear that someone had read the essay. I think that made my kid feel better about the time invested in writing it.

Pathetic if they have undergrads and grad students reading the essays.

Anonymous wrote:Went to grad school there. I assure you that UChicago reads essays - current students and Admin officers. I spent a lot of hours reading admission essays as a student admissions volunteer.

Yes, students read them. DC alum think the college counselors are waiting with bated breath for their DC essays.

Congrats! My kid is a sophomore at UChicago, your daughter would love it there.

Went to grad school there. I assure you that UChicago reads essays - current students and Admin officers. I spent a lot of hours reading admission essays as a student admissions volunteer.

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations PP. Best $320,000 you'll ever spend!

*OP