Shaping a Class

There was one final conversation when I was at Sacred Heart that I think quite a few of you will find interesting. There was a counselor I was talking to who works at a private school in the Dallas area. She used to be a “reader” for Notre Dame. This means that she would help them go through all of the applications and help admit and deny students. She said that there were always so many students who had a letter of acceptance ready to go out, but then they ended up being rejected at the very last minute.

The final step of the admissions process at most universities is what they call “shaping the class.” Once the schools have decided who they are going to admit, they go through and look at the class in a variety of different ways. In the example that this counselor was talking about, she said there were way too many female students who were admitted. The goal was to have the class more balanced between male and female students. So, the only thing the students knew is that they were being denied. They never knew that there was literally an acceptance letter ready to go out to them.

There are so many factors going on behind the scenes that students aren’t aware of. A rejection letter doesn’t mean in any way that the student wasn’t good enough.