NEWS
College admissions look at student activities
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by Sundeep Malladi
Monday, November 29, 2004
In colleges across the country, admissions strategies are undergoing a number of changes in respect to examining extracurricular activities — particularly when it comes to a record of volunteering.
Admissions offices at many universities are beginning to look more carefully at applicants’ volunteer activities, differentiating between those students who rarely donate their time to charity with those who have made a deep commitment to volunteerism, according to the New York Times.
But here at the University of Wisconsin, however, that may not be the case.
Thomas Reason, an assistant director in the UW admissions department, said, “[Admissions] has not changed all that dramatically over the last five years. Certainly going back 10, 15 years the situation has changed.”
While the University remains highly selective when choosing candidates for admission, Reason said being overly choosy can be difficult due to the size of the university and the number of applicants.
“Twenty-three thousand applications for freshmen admission and [a] limited number of people looking at those applications, researching in depth the nature by which a student is involved in their extracurricular activities — you probably don’t have the same capacity as a small liberal arts, highly-selective institution,” said Reason.
At large, selective public universities like the UW, these admissions practices can be very different.
“The more selective you are, the more subjective the process becomes; the more those other non-numeric kinds of measures come into play,” Reason said. “Folded into that is also the reality that at large public universities, the resources we have to try and make those decisions is limited.”
However, this is not to say that the Office of Admissions does not look at extracurricular activities.
“There are some individuals whose recommendations and personal statements are very superficial. They don’t make much difference at all,” Reason said. “[But] there are other individuals for whom those things are very specific and unique and say something very particular and important about the applicant. The same can be said for extra and co-curricular activities.”
Some students remain skeptical that listing extracurricular activities on college applications will reflect an individual’s qualifications for entry.
“There were a lot of [extracurricular activities] I listed that I really didn’t do anything for like German Club and Pep Club”, UW freshman Joseph Simler said. However, Simler pointed out other activities like National Honors Society and student government helped him get into the UW because he held officer positions.
“NHS helped because leadership skills are valued”, said Simler.
Other students point out that extracurricular activities only go so far. According to UW freshman Scott Vick, “Grades are the first thing they look at.”
Vick chose not to list all the extracurricular activities he was a member of, but rather only those he felt would make an impact on admissions officials.
Other students echoed similar views, saying membership in organizations like NHS does not denote gaining leadership or volunteerism experience.
“Chip’em some money, and you’re in, woop-de-frikin-doo,” UW junior Jeremy Falk said.
Students also emphasized that most of the battle of getting into organizations in high school revolves around an individual’s GPA.
“If you’re grade point is above a certain level, you’re almost guaranteed in,” UW junior Guy Pledger said.
However, though entry into extracurricular activities in high school may be a cut and dried process, Reason argues the same is not true for admissions into the UW.
“It really isn’t the case that there is one simple sort of magic formula or approach to this, it’s really far more art than science”, he said.
Anonymous (November 29, 2004 @ 4:45pm):
Just goes to prove my theory: UW wants to make its admissions policies as opaque as possible.
