College and university admissions administrators make it personal as they dig deeper into a candidate’s life.
By David Hodes
A high school student choosing a college or university for continuing education triggers a full-fledged review at his or her chosen institution that, behind the scenes, is much more of an in-depth, personal and thoughtful process than ever before.
There are other factors than just grade point average and standardized test scores that come into play in today’s candidate selection process. It’s less about the student choosing the school and more about the school choosing the student. For the prospective student, that means you’ve got to bring your A game … or your A+ game.
Most admitted students at the University of Virginia, for example, are in the top 10-15 percent of their high school class, according to Greg Roberts, U.Va.’s dean of admission. There were only 1,200 seats available for 8,000 applicants at Christopher Newport University for the 2014 school year, according to Robert Lange, the school’s dean of admission. “We are recruiting and admitting graduates,” Lange says. “So we need to be able to reasonably predict that they can be successful academically, and we also need to demonstrate a certain level of equity of access.”
Most colleges and universities also have a ratio of in-state to out-of-state students who are being accepted, further crunching the numbers and narrowing the avenue to entry, with more out-of-state first generation domestic students and international students being courted because they pay more in tuition than in-state. That helps the school fix its revenue stream and in turn creates a more diverse student population. “Our president says that we are a university for the world,” Amy Takayama-Perez, dean of admissions and executive director of the Washington Scholars program for George Mason University, says. GMU’s student population is composed of 20 percent nonresidents, which is a mix of both international and domestic students, and a freshman class that has expanded year after year, Takayama-Perez says.
Other schools in Virginia have a ratio of out-of-state to in-state students that varies from a low of 12 percent out-of-state and 78 percent in-state at Old Dominion University to a high of 33 percent out-of-state and 67 percent in-state at the University of Virginia.
The University of Mary Washington, with about 14 percent out-of-state for its current freshman class, is seeing more students from California and Texas. “This past year, we had 27 different states and seven different countries in our freshman class,” Melissa Yakabouski, director of undergraduate admissions for the University of Mary Washington, says. “I think that adds value in many different ways to students here.”
But whether in-state or out-of-state, the one overriding question that all admissions directors and staff face is a simple one: Exactly who is the ideal candidate for their school?
Most of the 12 Virginia colleges and universities polled for this article—Christopher Newport University, College of William and Mary, George Mason University, James Madison University, Longwood University, Old Dominion University, Radford University, the University of Mary Washington, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia State University and Virginia Tech—say they want the same thing from a high school candidate: a strong GPA of at least 3.1 or higher, a steady demonstration of community activity in a leadership role and the ability to handle the rigors of the coursework they are taking.
In addition to that information, most of these schools will ask for references and an essay. The essay is expected to be a truthful and descriptive narrative from the candidate and has become a more important part of the decision-making process for these institutions as they transition to a holistic approach in their selection process.
Standardized tests such as the SAT and the ACT have slowly moved down the list of factors being considered in admissions because schools have decided that the holistic approach is a better way to get to know the whole student: their likes and dislikes, their activities outside of the classroom, their leadership qualities and their grit in staying the course through high school.
Many schools have de-emphasized the importance of these two standardized tests, and some, like Virginia Commonwealth University, even consider them optional for stronger candidates with GPAs of at least 3.3. According to Luke Schultheis, vice provost for strategic enrollment management at VCU, they measure noncognitive variables, such as how a student responded and persevered in the face of adversity. “When we see strong indications that they have been able to get a lot of things done in the face of tough circumstances at home and have high level of what we call grit, that is a good candidate for us,” he says.
GMU, for example, went standardized test-optional in 2006 and was one of the first universities to do so. “Maybe the student has been taking [a] college prep curriculum, and their grades are good,” Takayama-Perez says. “But maybe they are just not a good test-taker, and their scores don’t reflect the level of commitment that they put in and the level of effort that they put in.”
Michael Walsh, dean of admissions at James Madison University, says the standardized tests had cultural biases that could affect the rating of the candidate, especially in cases of first-generation students, rural students or students from the center city. “There was one question that asked the student to define the word ‘regatta,’” Walsh says. “Few of the students who didn’t live on the East Coast knew that regatta was a group of ships in a sailing event [and] answered that correctly.”
Mildred Johnson, associate vice provost for enrollment management and director of undergraduate admissions for Virginia Tech, says that the institution has 13 readers on staff who pore over applications assigned to regions of the state. “We try to get away from the whole GPA thing because all GPAs are not created equal,” Johnson says. A 4.0 GPA for a student could be a result of a school system where the highest GPA was a 6.0. “It could be a student who got mostly Bs,” she says. “That demonstrates no strength in curriculum.”
Roberts says that admissions administrators consider standardized testing in their reviews of U.Va. applicants. “But there are no higher- and lower-level thresholds, and there are no formulas, equations or quotas in our review,” he says. “A student’s four-year high school career is far more important than a three-hour exam.”
Old Dominion is a standardized test-optional school as well for students at or above a 3.5 GPA. “We found that a test score was not an indicator of success,” Ellen Neufeldt, vice president for student engagement and enrollment services at Old Dominion, says. Instead, she says, they look at the leadership skills that the candidate demonstrated in high school. “We know that students that participate in leadership roles are much more likely to graduate,” Neufeldt says.
At Longwood University, administrators are also looking for students who seek the close-knit residential experience there, according to Jennifer Green, associate vice president for enrollment management and student success for Longwood University. She says that the students who really stand out are those who demonstrated a deep desire to connect with the community and a willingness to consider various viewpoints. “For us an application is not an application,” Green says. “It is a student. And every student has a story.”
Some schools go even further and delve even deeper into a student’s story to find the fit that works instead of simply matching an applicant’s information to some criteria of an ideal candidate. “There really isn’t an ideal candidate,” Walsh says. “There are some schools that have advanced placement opportunities and some high schools in rural areas that don’t have that, so we look at the candidate’s curriculum based on what is available, like grades in the core courses.”
The process should be a thoughtful one on the side of the candidates as well as the reviewers. Walsh says that it’s important for candidates to take their time on an application, especially in the essay part of the process, which is optional at his school but completed by most students. “If you are going to write it in five minutes, you are probably better off not writing anything,” he says.
Walsh recalled one essay that really helped identify what kind of person the student was. “He wrote about working at a gas station and how that wasn’t very exciting, so he decided to engage people in conversation,” he says. “His boss at the gas station said that this kid could hardly say two words to a stranger initially, and he was on the speech team by the 11th grade. We like that because it shows how this kid can learn from just dealing with everyday, normal things.”
References not related to the candidate’s school need to be someone who knows the student, he says. “I have received references from every elected official you can think of, up to the president of the United States,” Walsh says. “Most of them tell me nothing. They start off with ‘I don’t know the student personally, but I do know his parents,’” he says.
Yakabouski says that they are looking for not only good students but also students who can balance that with success in some other areas. “We are looking for doers, someone who we can see getting involved in being active on campus as well as being successful academically.”
The path of academic achievement in high school is another weighty consideration for most admissions reviewers. “We don’t like to see the students that started as a rock star in ninth or 10th or 11th grade and then began to go down,” Rodney D. Hall, executive director of enrollment services at Virginia State University, says. “That’s why we want to see them early in their senior year so we can try to intervene early on in the process.”
Some students are just not a perfect fit and may only discover that after they are actually enrolled in the school, according to James Pennix, dean of admissions for Radford University. Pennix has a background as a social worker and believes that has helped him in his work as an admissions guy. “The student might come in, look at us, take 24 semester hours in a two-year program, and then they can transfer if they want,” he says. “It’s like a second round of recruitment because if a student is just not prepared, we want to help advise them how to get prepared.”
Yakabouski says that the challenge for some students she sees is a result of their generation being “somewhat programmed.” “Their activities have been scheduled by their parents, and they are very rigid about those planned activities,” she says. “Then they come to college, where they are free to make their own decisions, [and] they are not used to making those decisions. So sometimes they stumble a little bit because they have so much free time that they overindulge in different things and are not prioritizing.”
Today’s incoming high school class represents a new challenge for admissions directors because they have had the Internet available to them all of their lives. Why continue an expensive, time-consuming educational process when the whole world’s knowledge is literally in the palms of their hands? “All of the data out there talks about how students that go to college in the long term have higher salaries,” Green says. “But we still need to find the right fit for post-high school students. For some it’s the military, and that is a great fit. And we need electricians and plumbers and other skillsets to make this world work.”
Walsh says that the No. 1 reason that kids who did well in high school end up dropping out of college is because they weren’t sure what they were doing there. “The key to going to college is to have a purpose, to say to yourself, ‘I want to do this,’” he says. “Not everyone is operating under the same time clock. There is no rush.”
The sort of informed clairvoyance needed to decide which student can succeed in a certain college comes with a deep sense of purpose among admissions administrators who understand the young, undecided lives that these learning institutions are entrusted with and the importance of the next four years to teenagers who are faced with one of the toughest decisions in their lives.
Johnson says that the most important factor is that they want to make sure that the students don’t overcommit. “This whole package that the student candidate presents to us is not about being in 10 organizations or three different sports,” she says. “I think that students who try to be all things to all people, at the end of the day, are so stressed out they don’t do well academically.”
The bottom line echoed among all these admissions administrators is that admissions is not a raised drawbridge at the entrance to an institution of higher learning designed to keep students out, but a well-worn, open-door pathway that leads to long-term success. “Our hope is that students will have opportunities to share their experiences and learn from others while building lifelong connections to a strong network of friends,” Tim Wolfe, dean of admission from the College of William and Mary, says.
Neufeldt says that the roles in admissions have evolved over time, and the staff has grown. “Once upon a time, everything in admissions was departmentalized,” she says. “But now we know that how we help a student enter has a great deal to do with how they achieve in life. We tie that together much more closely now.”
A Look at the Numbers
Area colleges and universities only have so many spots available for applicants. Here are the odds of being accepted.
School | Total population (graduate and undergraduate) | Number of freshman applications | Number of accepted applications for freshmen |
Christopher Newport University | 5,174 | 7,366 | 4,427 |
College of William and Mary | N/A** | 14,953 | 5,159 |
George Mason University | 33,815* | 28,652 | 18,852 |
James Madison University | 2015/2016 numbers not available at press time | ||
Longwood University | 5,102 | 5,291 | 4,084 |
Old Dominion University | 24,762 | 9,508 | 7,907 |
Radford University | 9,743 | 7,588 | 6,299 |
University of Mary Washington | 2015/2016 numbers not available at press time | ||
University of Virginia | 21,985 | 30,840 | 9,186 |
Virginia Commonwealth University | 31,300 | 16,290 | 11,800 |
Virginia State University | 4,643 | 6,650 | 5,119 |
Virginia Tech | 32,663 | 22,280 | 6,324 |
Liberty University | 2015/2016 numbers not available at press time | ||
Shenandoah University | 3,820 | 1,999 | 1,632 |
Marymount University | 3,363 | 2,143 | 1,838 |
University of Maryland | 38,140 | 28,414 | 12,740 |
Salisbury University | 8,671 | 8,360 | 5,059 |
Towson University | 22,284 | 12,348 | 8,033 |
St. Mary’s College of Maryland | 1,774 | 1,654 | 1,312 |
American University | 13,201 | 16,735 | 5,860 |
Catholic University of America | 6,521 | 5,996 | 4,712 |
(December 2015)