## Looking at ### Recommendation Letters Because many recommendation letters lack specific details, they end up neither helping nor hurting an applicant’s chances of getting in. Admissions officers understand public school counselors oversee large numbers of students, and as a result, most recommendations are generic and short. ### High School the unit being evaluated was less often the applicant than the applicant’s high school. Research studies on what is known as the “big fish/little pond” effect have found that when it comes to getting into a selective college, students are better off being the big fish in a small pond. ## Looking for ### A Story & The Voice What they are looking for in the file is the entirety of a teenager’s story. the depth & consistency of the story that the application tells about a student The essays that stick out do so not because of what the applicants write but how they write it—with an authentic voice that gives readers a sense of what the student sees, feels, and thinks. The best essays are honest slice-of-life stories, both entertaining and serious, that tell admissions officers something they don’t learn from another part of the application. ### Key Details applicants could increase their chances of grabbing the attention of an overburdened admissions reader if they provided **key details** about everything the student wanted them to know, right down to descriptions of high school clubs and the specific duties of a summer job even though there was no way to know if those details were always accurate. ### Evaluating potential The irony of college admissions is that the decision whether to admit someone is based on the future, not the past. It ultimately hinges on a judgment about the potential of that teenager over the next four years on a college campus, not what they’ve done the previous four years in high school. In other words, it’s difficult to separate whether what happens to these students after college is the result of who they are or what they did while in college. “The whole process is about finding potential,” “It’s about asking what kind of contribution can this person make to our community?” ### Consistent & Deep Devotion Admissions officers look for devotion to an activity or hobby for a prolonged period of time rather than “sign-up clubs” to fill in the blank spaces on the application. Not only does sustained involvement give students an opportunity to become leaders, but it shows a passion for something.