Holistic Admissions Policy in college admission

You might have heard about the holistic admission process mentioned by most colleges. Almost every selective college these days in United States uses this approach while selecting the candidates. And the number is increasing every year. So are you aware of what this actually means? Find out now.

How to use the Common Application

Common Application is a non-profit organization which allows students to apply to many colleges using just one general application. With the privilege to fill only one application for many colleges, CommonApp simplifies the application process.  You can send your application online or by paper. Besides your general application, CommonApp also supports letters of recommendation from teachers and counselor, transcripts, supplements, and even payments of colleges application fees.

Common Application

The Common Application, generally known as the CommonApp, stands for it's name. It provides a common application which can be used to apply to many member universities of United States and a few other countries including France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, and Switzerland. Currently 456 colleges from 46 state of United States and other mentioned countries use the Commanapp.

Advanced Placement Program (AP)

The Advanced Placement, commonly known as AP, is a special program offered by the CollegeBorad  in the United States and Canada. This standardized test offers courses to high school students and is generally recognized to be similar to the courses in college. However, these courses are more rigorous than the courses in highschool. So any student who completes this test is supposed to have better understanding to the college courses. Colleges which participate and recognize this program give extra credit to students who obtain high enough scores. This test is also used in the admission process in some very selective undergraduate schools.

SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test

SAT is the most popular standardized test used in the college admission process in the United States. (ACT is the second most popular test.) SAT is developed and administrated by the CollegeBoard.

This test, as mentioned by the Collegeboard, indicates the readiness of a student for college education. More precisely it is said to measure the literacy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. It consists of three different sections which are Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing. Writing section is a new addition to the test, which was added only a few year ago. The full marks of each section are 800 so the total score of SAT is 2400.

ACT American College Test

ACT, which stands for American College Test is one of the two standardized tests accepted by most colleges and universities for admission purposes. The other test ofcourse is the SAT. The test has 5 sections with one being optional. ACT has a multiple choice section covering math, English, reading, and science. The optional section is the writing test in which the test taker needs to write a essay within the given time of 30 minutes. The 4 mandatory tests are scored individually on a scale of 1–36, and a Composite score is provided which is the whole number average of the four scores.

Application requirements for international students

If you are an international student, you will have to go through some additional application process. In some cases you will have to complete additional requirements besides the general one and sometimes, you may have to go through process different instead of the general one. The major differences in an international student application is the TOEFL, Financial assistance, Financial aid application and other additional applications.