4 Key “Student Data” Sources used in College Admissions Decisions
Top-tier colleges and universities are reporting record-high application numbers resulting in record-low, single-digit acceptance rates this year. This trend is evident across the country including all the Ivies (Harvard, 3.19%) and many selective colleges such as Vanderbilt (6%), Amherst (7%), Swarthmore (7%), Rice (8.56%), Williams (9%), Northwestern (7%), Duke (6%), Colby (7%), and Tufts (7%). With rates this competitive, prospective students and their parents might feel lost when attempting to generate a college list that minimizes the likelihood of deferrals, waitlists, and rejections, as experienced by high school seniors in the 2022 admissions cycle.
Wouldn’t it be great to know what college admissions counselors consider when making their decision? At Tufts University admissions counselors separate information from the application into two categories: student data and student voice. The student data sources are used primarily to complete the applicant’s academic review
With colleges making the shift to holistic, test-optional application review processes, college admissions counselors repeatedly identify that the rigor of a student’s academic program, in the context of what that student’s high school offers, is one of the most important components of the academic review. Rigor is not defined as you may think; determining rigor is much more nuanced than just noting a student’s GPA.
Admissions counselors evaluate academic rigor through the following student data sources:
School Profile
Student Transcript
GPAs: Weighted vs. Unweighted
Class Rank and/or Class Performance Deciles
Let’s examine how the student data sources are used to determine the degree of rigor in a student’s academic program during the applicant’s academic review.
School Profile - Course offerings differ widely from high school to high school. In order to assess the academic strength of a high school’s curriculum, the college admission reader examines each high school’s School Profile form. Every parent should read the School Profile to better understand the context in which their child’s academic program will be evaluated. When doing so, note the information that the School Profile provides about the school’s curricular offerings such as:
How many Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes does the school offer?
What unique academic programs are there?
Is there Dual Enrollment offered at the school?
How many National Merit Scholars are there in this class?
How many students earned a 3, 4, or 5 on AP tests?
What percentage of the graduates attend a 4-year or 2-year college, take a GAP year, or enter the military?
What colleges/universities do graduates historically attend.
Academic Transcript - Admission counselors compare what the high school offers with what classes the prospective student selected, noting how well that student performed, as indicated on their student transcript. The student’s transcript specifies grades, cumulative GPA, course names, and course levels (honors, unleveled, college prep, accelerated, Advanced Placement (AP), or International Baccalaureate (IB)). Please know that if a high school offers 22 AP classes, a highly rigorous student academic program might include six to eight AP classes at the most. Very few students qualify to take AP Art or AP foreign language, for example. And, most students cannot start to take AP classes until their sophomore year.
Grade trends are very important as well. Did the student maintain a level of high achievement throughout all four years of high school? Or, was there an upward trend over the four years, culminating in a rigorous set of senior year classes in which the student is successful? Throughout the transcript analysis, the admissions counselor is looking for evidence of “college readiness.”
GPA: Weighted vs. Unweighted - I recently read a Facebook post exclaiming frustration that a student with a 4.0 GPA did not get into school X when school X had accepted a student with a lower GPA. Yup! This happens all the time. In this case, it’s not known if the GPAs are unweighted or weighted. And, remember that holistic admissions decisions factor in much more than just GPAs.
Some high schools, as well as colleges or universities, will recalculate the high school GPAs to “weight” those classes that they see as more rigorous. For instance, a school might award an extra 0.5 point to an honors class and an extra 1.0 point to an AP class when recalculating an applicant’s unweighted GPA. When you hear of a student earning a 4.8 on a 4.0 GPA scale, that GPA is “weighted” to reflect what the school perceives to be additional rigor. Even on an unweighted scale, students can earn 4.2+ if the high school gives “A+” grades. The takeaway here is that unweighted GPAs do not reflect rigor.
Class Rank versus Class Performance Percentile - Students are asked to enter their class rank in the Common Application’s Education section. Class rank denotes where a senior falls on a senior class GPA list organized from highest to lowest. It is another tool used for determining student performance and college readiness. However, many high schools have moved away from reporting class rank because it breeds unnecessary competition and doesn’t reflect the rigor of one’s academic program if the school generates class rank using unweighted GPAs.
While many schools won’t share class rank, they might share a student’s GPA-based performance decile. Has that student earned a GPA that puts them in the top 10%, 20%, or 50% of their class? Many colleges/universities will report that “X percent of our admitted students for the Class of X were in the top 10% of their high school class.” Pandemic-related grade inflation could lead to lower student decile performance too. Noting where a student falls within the decile ranking is helpful to understanding how college admissions counselors will view that student’s academic performance relative to other students in the same school.
Take-Aways for Parents:
1. Tailor your child’s college list to support their goals, strengths, interests, and potential using your new understanding of how to interpret the student data sources. You know that a college list should have reach schools, targeted schools, and those that are most likely to accept your child, but when considering academic rigor, be sure that the colleges you think are within reach actually are. Be realistic about the rigor of your child’s high school academic program in order to generate a college list that is filled with schools in which your child will thrive. That list will look different for every student!
2. Share the reasons behind your child’s academic course selections. Paul Sunde, Director of Admissions at Dartmouth College shared, “I want to know why students made the choices they did when selecting classes.” Provide your child’s teacher and/or school counselor with the reasons why your child chose the classes they did and ask them to elaborate on that topic in their recommendation letters. Include things such as time-consuming hobbies outside of school, family obligations, or class scheduling conflicts that may have influenced the academic load your child took. This helps admission counselors understand your child’s academic choices and avoids unfavorable assumptions.
3. Encourage your child to take some academic risks while in high school. For instance, college admission counselors have shared that it’s not in a student’s best interest to have straight A’s in all their classes if more rigorous classes in the very same subjects are offered. Admissions counselors are trying to ascertain how college-ready a student is. If they stay in their academic comfort zone throughout their high school career, then they can’t project their potential with any accuracy. In such a case, encourage your child to pursue high school courses that stretch them while also taking into consideration everything, in and out of school, that they have on their plates.
Lastly, remember that rigor of an academic program is just one factor, albeit an important one. Colleges and universities desire students who are going to diversify their campus in a myriad of ways and who will actively contribute to a rich learning and living environment. Extracurricular and community engagement activities are very important in the admission process too! Remember, that the Tufts admissions counselors examine information derived from both student data sources AND student voice sources. Part Two of this blog will examine the role of student voice data sources in the holistic college admissions process. Stay tuned!
If you have more questions about academic rigor and how it’s being used in the college admissions process, please reach out to JMT College Consulting at https://www.jmtcollegeconsulting.com/contact-us