College Admissions: Not Complicated, But Not Simple (NAPSA)—Thecollege admissions process is neither predictable nor random, according to a study by the College Board summarized in Admissions Decision-Making Models, a resource for admissions professionals, by Gretchen Rigol. Even if you haveall the characteristics a college is lookingfor, that doesn’t mean you’re certain to get in, Rigol explains, because “supply and demand”often enters the equation. When a college receives many more qualified applications than it has seats available, admissions decisions becomevery hard to make. Recomputing students’ gradepoint averages is one way that colleges “standardize” information so that they can compare students from vastly different backgrounds fairly. “Because there is no uniformity in the way that high schools compute GPAs, manyinstitutions recalculate it,” Rigol explains. Grades achieved in Advanced Placement (AP) and other challenging programs may be used to “weight” a GPA, while the grades earned in non-college prep courses may be eliminated. Some colleges go a step further and compute an “academic index” for each applicant—a measure that takes into account GPA,class rank, and/or test scores. An academic index is a useful tool for identifying applicants who are most like the students who’ve succeeded at that college or university in recent years. Whodecides whogets in? At some colleges, each application is individually read by the admissions staff, working singly or in teams. At other institutions, applications are computer-sorted into groups that are accepted, declined or routed to individuals or committees for additional review. Rigol says “the decision to reject an application typically involves more steps than a decision to accept.” “When you think about it,” says Renee Gernand, the College Board’s senior director for College Planning Services, “students make decisions about colleges in much the same way. You can use the collegeboard.com College Search feature to sort through the thousands of colleges in the U.S. and come up with a manageable number to investigate in depth,” she says. “Then you read thecolleges’ view-books or visit their campuses to find out more about them.”
