How colleges decide who gets in, who gets rejection letter

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thousands of Georgia high school seniors are scrambling to finish their college applications and many wonder how colleges decide whom to admit and whom to reject.

Jean Jordan, dean of admissions at Emory University, sat down with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to demystify the process. Emory's application deadline is Jan. 15, the same date used by University of  Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and others.

It's competitive out there -- less than 30 percent of the nearly 16,700 students who applied to Emory were admitted last year.

Q: What factors do you consider for admission? What is the most heavily weighted?

A: We have three people who review each application before any decision is made. They look at the complete application -- curriculum, grades, test scores, essays, activities and letters of recommendation. Number one is what you've done in high school and the GPA (grade point average) is make-or-break for a lot of students.

Q: Students often load up on tough classes, including college-level Advanced Placement courses, because they think it is what colleges want. But then they struggle academically. What is valued more: lower grades in tough classes or higher grades in easier ones?

A: It's better to get an A in an AP class. What students have to understand is there will be kids in the pool who have both because this is a competitive and selective process. We're more interested in seeing kids challenge themselves by taking the highest level available, but students need to do what they feel they can handle. If you take two AP classes your junior year, take three your senior year. There's this tendency for kids to say if five is good, eight is better, but that may be more than they can handle.

Q: What makes some students stand out? You can have students with similar GPAs, SAT scores, extracurricular activities, etc., so there must be certain intangible qualities that put one student in the admitted pile and another in the rejected pile.

A: It could be the student essay or extracurricular activities that make a student stand out. We have a number of short-answer questions and we ask students why they're applying to Emory and why they would be a good fit. When they take the time to do the research and know enough about the university and can articulate it well, it shows they want to come here. If they say they want to come here because Emory has a great football team, we know they didn't do the research.

Q: What makes a good essay?

A: You don't have a to have a family tragedy to write a good essay. You could have a paper route in the morning and write about how that job has affected you in other parts of your life.You could write about your family or extracurricular activities or something powerful such as a community service project you got a lot out of. Don't do church mission trips unless you can do it really well. So many people use that and write a travelogue and that's not powerful. If you wrote this essay and it didn't have your name on it, would someone know to give it to you after reading it? That's a good essay.

Q: How much help should students get with their essays? Can you tell if a student received too much help from a parent, counselor or paid consultant?

A: There's a big difference between a 40- or 50-year-old voice and that of a 17-year-old. With all the essay-writing sites on the Web, we do see essays that kids can purchase and there are some essays that kids use every year. ... Parents can help students with grammar and punctuation; but remember, it really does need to be students' work.

Q: How many recommendation letters are too many? What makes a good recommendation letter?

A: We require [a letter] from the guidance counselor. Mistakes are made because a lot of parents feel they need to get someone impressive -- an alum, a donor, maybe someone famous. We find a lot of those people can't give us any additional information on the student. Choose teachers or coaches or bosses or Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts leaders who know you well.

Q: Is there anything else students should do to improve their chances? Should they friend you on Facebook?

A: I'm not on Facebook. I try to draw the line with that because the university has a Facebook page. We are here for students and parents and they can ask us questions. They should have a list of questions they ask every single school.