Holistic College Admissions

Holistic College Admissions January 10 Would you want to admit the Unabomber to your university? Harvard did and surely regretted that decision. Holistic admissions isnt perfect but its better than just judging applicants based on SAT or ACT scores and grades. There was an article recently in The Atlantic entitled The False Promise of Holistic College Admissions written by Phoebe Maltz Bovy that we wanted to draw to your attention. In the piece, Bovy essentially argues that holistic college admissions isnt right, that admissions officers are essentially passing judgement on students based on their transcript, SAT or ACT scores, college admissions essays, and letters of recommendation. Theyre judging the character and personality of these students when, she argues, they should be judging the applicant. We beg to differ. What on earth is wrong with judging personality and character? Some admissions officer(s) at Harvard mistakenly judged the character of Ted Kaczynski and offered him admission to their university. Were not saying these character and personality judgements are always correct (theyre not!), but why cant college admissions officers factor in personality and character so as to avoid the embarrassment of having future murderers as alumni? It seems rather logical to us! And in what world arent people judging? Our world is filled with judgement. Not everybody is a winner! To give you an example, when you go on a date and the person is incredibly smart and kind and has a great job, does that mean that youre automatically into that person? Of course not. Because your judgement of him or her is holistic. If you dont feel it, you just dont feel it. Its that simple. Whats wrong with having some of that in college admissions? Are there flaws with holistic college admissions? Yes. But Ms. Maltz Bovy seems to only point out these flaws without suggesting a better alternative. Its certainly not just judging an applicant by his or her grades and test scores. Because then schools will admit the Unabomber. And that would be terrible! While youre here, read about how Ivy League admission isnt random.