Tufts Blogs

Admissions officers spend a lot of time talking about the “holistic reading process.” For many high school seniors, this often seems like a strategy we employ to avoid talking about what counts “most” and what counts “least” in your college application. I sympathize with your frustration, and while I refuse to tell you there’s anything that counts “most” or “least” (these things truly don’t exist) I will admit that there are things that matter enough that sometimes I see them make a committee cringe. So I thought I’d demystify them for you. Here are five things that make admissions officers groan… things that, while they never act alone in being a “deal breaker,” can sometimes make a “Deny” decision come faster or more definitively:

1. Poor senior grades: Junior and senior years are the most important ones on your transcript; they are most predictive of success in college and most reflective of your “current” self. So when we evaluate your transcript, we pay close attention to your grades in junior year, as well as your first quarter grades (for EDI applicants) or midyear grades (for EDII and RD applicants) in senior year. That means your senior year grades can sometimes change your academic “story” in the admissions process. A rough junior year can sometimes be redeemed with a stellar performance in the beginning of senior year, in your most challenging curriculum yet. Conversely, an upward or steady trend through high school can be undone with B’s and C’s on a 12th grade midyear report. Is she slacking off in her senior year? Can he not handle this workload now that he kicked it up a notch? Those are serious questions we ask when we see a poor 12th grade performance. A stellar application and real fit for Tufts may ultimately win out, but it would be better if those questions never have to come up in the first place. (Disclaimer: If something is going on at home, and it is the reason behind poor grades – a concussion, a sick parent, a messy divorce – tell us.)
2. A “Why Tufts” response with misinformation in it: When I am faced with a 14% admit rate, and I have to put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into reading thousands upon thousands of applications, I am disappointed when an applicant hasn’t even put in enough time to learn that Tufts does not offer a business degree. So please avoid telling us you want to go to Tufts for nursing, you love our scuba diving club, or you can’t wait to take a class with our renowned professor of juggling. You know how when someone has a crush on you, you’re more likely to have a crush on them? When you show us love (by doing your research through a campus visit, a conversation with us at your high school, or just a lot of online digging) we are more likely to show you love back. Plain and simple.
3. Learning something from your Guidance Counselor that should have come from you: There is a “Discipline and School Interruption” section on the Common Application. If an applicant fills it out honestly, completely, and with enough humility and reflection, it often has limited bearing on their admissions decision. We understand people – especially teenagers – make mistakes. You experiment with things that aren’t legal for individuals your age, you break boarding school curfews, you make bad choices under pressure. As long as you own up to this mistake, give us context, and show growth, we can be incredibly forgiving. But if you try to avoid telling us at all, and then we learn about it from your guidance counselor or teacher? Not a good look.
4. Not responding to your alumni interviewer: Our interviews are optional; we WILL NOT penalize you if you do not request an interview from Tufts. But when you do request one, and our interviewer reaches out to you, and you ignore them (yes, they tell us) – that makes us make a face. So what can you do to make sure we don’t get the impression that you’re rudely ignoring our alumni? Use an email address on your application that you actually check, and then check it (and its spam folder, just in case). And when your interviewer reaches out to say hello and ask you when and where you can meet, respond promptly and politely. Then be respectful of their time – don’t reschedule a million times, tell them at the last minute you can’t make it, or show up 30 minutes late without giving them a heads up that you’re stuck in traffic.
5. Answering our question with an essay we know was written for another school: We are not so insular that we don’t know what other colleges are asking you on their supplements. Yes, we know that Stanford asks you to write a letter to your future roommate, that the University of Chicago asks you to create your own idiom, and Williams asks you to pick one person in the world to take a class with. So when your third supplement response starts with “Dear future roommate,” we get a “womp womp” feeling. If you do not have enough time to write all the college essays you are being asked to write, narrow your list - for your sake and ours. Each college asks its questions for a reason, so while we understand you will ultimately write about similar themes, answer each question thoughtfully and give it the time it deserves.

There you have it – if you can avoid the five things above, you have given yourself the best possible shot in the college admissions process. None of these things are going to guarantee a “No” decision from a school, but they are the five things I have seen most often deflate a room full of admissions officers in committee. Now I want you to think about all the things you thought were deal-breakers. One bad test that you’re afraid we’ll see even though we say we superscore, the fact that we didn’t get that fourth letter of recommendation you meant to send, or the fact that the limited space on the Activities list didn’t allow you to list a few clubs you were part of in ninth grade. If you are worried about something, and it doesn’t appear above, chances are we don’t give it a second thought, and neither should you.

Photo by Alex Proimos via Flickr