People often have crazy images of what happens in admissions committees. Some of this is further perpetuated in movies like Legally Blonde and How I Got Into College.
What Happens Before Committee
During the fall, most of our admissions recruitment staff are spending weeks on the road attending college fairs and visiting high schools to promote our institutions and help answer questions from interested prospective juniors and seniors. This process typically starts around the second week of September and takes us through early November.
Once we get back from a life on the road filled with many nights in hotels, fast-food eating, and lots of driving, we come back to our offices to start reviewing applications. Since most students do wait until close to the deadline to apply (shame on you that fear clicking the “submit” button), the applications tend to pile in all at once.
We begin reviewing all of the applications. At JMU, we review applications based on our particular region. We divide applications up under a geographic region. Typically, the person that is doing recruitment travel in Pennsylvania will also review those applications from Pennsylvania. By doing so, we are able to become very familiar with each school so we can understand the academic offerings, grading scales, etc.
In each application, we first closely review the high school profile that is normally sent with each applicant’s transcript. This gives us information such as how many AP courses are offered, the school’s grading scale, any specialty centers the school offers, high school graduation rates, etc. We take notes on each application to make note of what courses a student chooses to take in the areas of English, math, lab science, foreign language, and social sciences. We make notes on how students have challenged themselves with AP, IB, Dual Enrollment, and Honors courses. We keep track of grades that they have in these core courses and their grade trend. The bulk of our review time for applications involves analyzing and breaking down the transcript in a way that is consistent for us to discuss.
After we have made this review, we then begin to look at some of the subjective materials such as a student’s college essay, extracurricular activities, and recommendation. This gives us a brief glimpse into the type of person that student is and what they are passionate about. However, most of our decisions don’t involve these pieces – most decisions are made based on the strength of a student’s curriculum and their grades.
Jamie, Kristen, and Shaun discuss an application
What Happens During Committee
Typically a make-up of our admissions committees will consist of 3-4 people. The regional counselor will be present along with 2-3 other people. We are not all dressed in 3-piece suits sitting in leather chairs at an executive mahogany conference table. We dress casually and do sit in a modest conference room or someone’s office to discuss the applications. The person that is the regional counselor takes copious notes on each applicant. One person presents the application and reads the information about a student’s classes, strength of schedule, SAT/ACT scores, and grades. Another person is usually also taking copious notes to serve as “quality control”. As a committee, we make a decision on each applicant. There is no voting – we must all agree on the decision. We spend a lot of time comparing students and making sure that our decisions are consistent. The regional counselor and “quality control” person have reports and notes of everyone from each high school to use for comparison.
Here are some of the common things asked if you sat in our room as a fly on the wall:
- How many AP courses does this school offer?
- What did we do last year with similar students from this school?
- When were the Cs on the transcript? Were they all last year or were they spread throughout high school?
- When did they stop taking math?
- What science courses do most of the strong students take from this school?
- When do you want to break for lunch? Did anyone bring snacks?
We typically start our committee day around 9AM and end around 4:00-4:30PM. Doing this for weeks on end can be taxing and we do get quite punchy after 2-3 weeks of discussing the thousands of students that apply, but we do take our decision-making process seriously to ensure we have made the correct decision.
What Happens After Committee
After all of our decisions are made, the applications are turned in and the decisions are entered in our system. We then get a report to double-check that the decision our committee made was the correct decision and entered properly.
After we are sure that our decisions are correct and final, we will start working on printing letters, proofreading names/addresses, and getting them ready to mail. Once letters are finalized, we have them stuffed in envelopes. Once we are ready to drop them in the mail, we will email students to let them know they can check their decisions online (using their application reference number and a PIN that our office generates for them).
What is the number of applicants JMU had for this upcoming freshman class for 2011/12 school year?
We had about 22,000 applications this year. That number is completed applications that were able to be reviewed. There are others that apply but we never receive all of their materials such as high school transcripts or SAT/ACT scores.
We are planning to enroll slightly above 4000 freshman.
How many transfer students from in and out of state are admitted for the fall 2011?
We admit through Spring, Summer, and Fall terms about 800 students per year and we had about 2,800 applications this year to transfer. We have space for about 650 students for the fall and received 2,000 applications to be considered for the fall 2011 semester.
We do not pay close attention to residency in the transfer application process. Typically, about 85% of the transfer applicant pool would be classified as in-state students for tuition purposes.
If you haven’t heard your decision from our office, you should call us at (540)568-5681.
I have a lot of questions about what’s more valuable to you when you are discussing each person’s accomplishments. I’m a rising senior and a dual enrollment student. I took two classes at the community college over the summer and plan to take a full load there this year. Our AP courses aren’t very good and I really wanted to challenge myself by taking college courses. I just don’t know if I’m hurting my chances to get accepted at JMU. I have three questions: 1. Is AP looked at more favorably than Dual Enrollment? 2. Would I be considered a freshman applicant or a transfer student if I have a college transcript? 3. If I have enough credits to be considered a sophmore, does that kill my chances to live in the dorms as a freshman? I want to live on campus so I can meet people. Thanks!
1. We view AP and Dual Enrollment courses equally. Both are considered college-level courses for JMU.
2. You only apply as a transfer student if you take college courses after you graduate from high school. Since you are dual-enrolled and have not graduated yet, you apply as a freshman.
3. Not at all. Since you are applying as a freshman, we require you to live on campus (unless you are a local student). There is a definite value in living on-campus. You may have enough credits to give you sophomore-status, but you will be able to live on campus that first year.
Thank you for writing this article, it was a keen insight on the human aspect of the college application process! I am keeping everything written on this blog in mind while I am completing my JMU Early Action application.
Thanks for visiting the blog Andre!
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. I would absolutely love to go to JMU (I applied RD as a freshman this fall, I am a senior in high school) but I’m very afraid I won’t be accepted. I did very well my freshman and sophomore years and my mid-year grades for senior year were good, but my junior year was not. There were a handful of Cs, one A, and one B. It was a complete anomaly due to personal problems and reflects someone that absolutely isn’t me. I have very strong ECs. I was just wondering how the admissions committee will view this.
Sincerely,
Anxiously awaiting late March/early April
We do put the most weight on two things – the strength of your high school curriculum and your grades. You are correct in that junior year is an important year since it is the last time that we can see full-year grades before making our decision. We have starting meeting in our committees this week. Mid-year grades are another piece that we can use to help make our decision. It is good that you have done well in your senior year. That will show the committee that you haven’t been on a downward trend with performance and it may look like an anomaly.
My classes are all honors and AP throughout all of high school. I hope that will help. Although I got Cs in two AP classes, I scored 4s on both of those AP Exams last year. Thank you very much for replying!