Making Decisions

Today’s the last day I’ll read applications at home this spring. I’ll miss these quiet days, away from the buzz of the office. Today, though, my reading was accompanied by the sad wheezing of a daughter with pneumonia. She’s only 13, but her reaction to her illness was, “I don’t have time to be sick.” Don’t we all know that feeling?! Thank goodness for antibiotics.

But back to admissions business. With all we’ve written about how much we enjoy reading applications, we’ve carefully sidestepped the topic of making decisions on them. Each time an application is read, the reader assigns a decision (ranging from deny to strong admit). At the end of the process, the strongest applicants are admitted with no further fuss, but much more time is reserved to sort through the rest of the pool. Many will be admitted, some will be offered a place on the wait list, and some will not be offered admission this year.

Making admissions decisions is not a science, particularly at Fletcher where we tend not to be driven by numbers. Though GPAs and test scores are important, there’s nothing formulaic about our approach. Still, the applicants who are admitted are ones we believe will succeed in Fletcher classes, and also contribute to the community. That’s true, too, for applicants offered a place on the wait list.

As we come down to the wire, this year’s applicants will want to know that it’s our goal to put decisions in the mail by the last week in March, so that all applicants can receive their decisions before April 1.