The latest report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) details the various factors considered when colleges and universities build their freshmen classes.
Grades, high school curriculum and test scores are the top factors in admission decisions according to the State of College Admission report issued last week by NACAC.
Now in its 15th year, the report continues to spotlight the importance of academic performance in the admission process, but notes that other factors are also relevant as admissions committees select graduating high school students to attend their institutions.
In May 2018, NACAC distributed its Counseling Trends Survey (CTS) for the 2017-18 academic year to counseling office staff members at 16,252 secondary schools and received 2,251 responses. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents were from public schools, 18 percent from private non-parochial schools and 14 percent from private parochial schools.
While the surveys don’t specifically indicate issues of racial or ethnic bias, Melissa E. Clinedinst, NACAC associate director of research and lead researcher on the report, noted that when examining factors in admission decisions, the high school that an applicant attends can be a factor and access to courses is considered.
“Some schools may offer more AP courses or an IB program or just have more opportunities for students to take rigorous coursework,” said Clinedinst. “One way that colleges would take that into account is to look at not just what the students took, but what was available to them,” she added.
Colleges, she said, are experimenting with holistic admission processes outside of simply evaluating the GPA or standardized test scores. “Even though those factors are very important, they look for other ways to identify talent because they want a diverse student body.”
