A PROMISING PRACTICE: HOLISTIC ADMISSIONS IN U.S.
A PROMISING PRACTICE:HOLISTIC ADMISSIONSIN U.S. GRADUATEEDUCATION
What is all the talk about holistic admissions?Holistic admissions is becoming an increasingly hot topic among U.S. graduate schoolsand programs. It’s not a new idea. Programshave long used multiple criteria such asundergraduate grades, standardized testscores, English-language proficiency tests,essays, personal statements, letters of recommendation, interviews, and résumés inevaluating prospective students.What is new is the increased focus on theintentionality of the process and whetherit is being carried out in the best way toidentify the most promising prospects whileensuring equity, equality, and inclusivity. Ina true holistic review, no single data point isconsidered in isolation.Holistic admissions is becomingan increasingly hot topic amongU.S. graduate schools andprograms.Rather, all the data points together paint abroad picture of each applicant’s abilities,attributes, and experiences to help decisionmakers identify who most effectively match-es the goals of the program and stands thebest chance of thriving in it.Many graduate programs say they arepracticing holistic admissions, yet becausethere isn’t one universal definition of theterm, they are not entirely sure that theyare doing it correctly. What is clear is thateach program is using its own uniqueversion of a holistic approach, based onits own understanding of the definition.Those most committed to the concept aretaking steps to include more informationon candidates, trying to educate professorsand reviewers against unconscious bias,and establishing more formal rubrics andpractices to build consistency.“Like any system change, designing and implementing holistic review should be morelike chess than checkers,” says Julie Posselt,associate professor of the University ofSouthern California Rossier School of Education, and author of Inside Graduate Admissions – Merit, Diversity, and Faculty Gatekeeping. “You need to think out a few movesto imagine how both students and reviewerswill respond to the system you create. Youneed to be disciplined and systematic.”2A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
What’s driving the conversation?The intensified attention to holistic admissions has grown out of concern that facultycommittees traditionally have given toomuch weight to just one or two academicindicators, and studies show that studentsfrom underrepresented groups tend tohave lower grades and test scores than students who have had access to more educational resources.At the same time, a growing body of evidencesuggests that noncognitive skills such as grit,resilience, and motivation can help predictfuture success, for students of all backgrounds. Many consider holistic reviews amore race-neutral way of achieving diversity.Another driving force is that decision makingin higher education is becoming more andmore informed by data. Institutions want tobe sure they are using the most predictivemeasures of a student’s ability to do thework, contribute to the program, and excel intheir field.That’s why, when it was created in 2014,the Professional and Graduate EducationProgram of Mount Holyoke College put intoplace a holistic admissions process. In addition to the traditional academic indicators,applicants must submit a personal statement, two letters of recommendation, anda résumé. Each application is also evaluated by an external reviewer who holds thesame teaching license that the candidateseeks to pursue. In addition, prospectivestudents have to interview with an admissions committee — and teach a preparedmini-lesson on a subject of their choice.Many consider holistic reviewsa more race-neutral way ofachieving diversity.“This gives us real insight into their suitability around content knowledge andpedagogical skills,” says Ruth Hornsby,Mount Holyoke’s assistant director ofteacher licensure programs. “This helps usto see not only the teaching potential ofa student, but how they prepare and planthis component.”3A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
What are alternatives to using grades or test scores as anarbitrary cut?It has been relatively common in years pastfor graduate admissions officials to makean initial cut based on grade point average,standardized tests scores, or some other arbitrary threshold to reduce the prospect poolto a more manageable number. This is especially true for larger programs that might gethundreds or thousands of applicants. However, many institutions are developing otherways to strategically narrow the pool.One strategy involves considering multiplemeasures. In addition to undergraduatetranscripts and test scores, graduate schoolscan consider relevant research experiencesor significant obstacles an applicant has overcome. Staff can identify such cases to be putinto the pool for full holistic review. The finalreview, as is customary, would still be doneby regular faculty members.Suzanne Barbour, dean of the GraduateSchool of the University of North Carolina atChapel Hill, says that the traditional metricsof grades and test scores work best whenthey are considered with other factors, likeletters of reference and personal statements.Even still, she says, it is a challenging task todissuade faculty members, especially in largeprograms, against using arbitrary thresholdsto weed out applicants who might initially beperceived as academically weak.In addition to undergraduatetranscripts and test scores,graduate schools can considerrelevant research experiencesor significant obstacles anapplicant has overcome.“Faculty are very busy and service responsibilities like graduate admissions are sometimes not rewarded,” says Barbour, also aprofessor of biochemistry and biophysics.“We are still working hard to convince programs that holistic admissions processes areworth the additional time and investment.”4A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
How do you find the time to carry out the holisticapplication process?Time is perhaps the biggest challenge of undertaking a holistic process. It simply takesmore time to go through all of the partsof an application and interviews — and tocoordinate feedback among the reviewers,especially when as many as 10 to 15 peoplemight be involved.Time is perhaps the biggestchallenge of undertaking aholistic process.Technology has helped. Many programs areusing online systems so that applications canbe read anywhere and anytime. Reviewers canalso make online comments within the electronic application materials to be seen by theircounterparts, but not the prospective students.Video conferencing makes personal interviewslogistically easier. Programs are developingsystems for the interviewers to discuss andcompare their impressions.To streamline the process and provide consistency in review, some institutions are comingup with rubrics for professors to follow as theyconduct their reviews. At UNC-Chapel Hill,graduate admissions is decentralized, as it is atmany institutions. Applicants are reviewed bythe departments or programs, and then theirrecommendations are made to the GraduateSchool. The dean’s office recommends thatprograms use a “reverse design” to identify desired characteristics for their graduatestudents. “Start with your strongest students,identify the characteristics that underlie theirsuccess, and devise a strategy to review applicants for those characteristics,” Barbour says.5A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
When can noncognitive indicators balance academicinconsistencies?The University of Rhode Island recently instituted new policies for graduate admissions tomake “implicit” holistic experiences “explicit,”says Alycia Mosley Austin, the university’sassistant dean of graduate recruitment anddiversity initiatives.The university has 35 master’s programs. Eachone requires an undergraduate GPA of at least3.0, a personal statement, two letters of recommendation, and a résumé. The résumé component, added for the fall of 2019’s entering class,is valuable for seeing candidates’ employmenthistory, volunteer work, or research endeavors,which are often more telling of future successthan their academic record, she says.Looking beyond academic data points, shesays, helps reviewers discover students whomight have struggled with grades, but havevaluable research or career experience. Theexpectations are different for someone whohas been out in the working world. “The holisticapproach helps us focus on our outcomes,”says Austin. “We can identify a creative personversus a person who got all A’s in their classes,but doesn’t have any creativity.”Jeremiah Nelson, director of enrollmentmanagement for the business school at WakeForest University and vice president of theNational Association for Graduate EnrollmentManagement, says there is more risk associated with admitting a candidate who haspoor academic performance, but he has seenmultiple examples of people who thrive ingraduate school after they have matured andare motivated and goal oriented.One student who is currently in her secondyear at the business school was marginalbased on test scores and grades, but her experience as a senior executive and her leadershipin the community was extensive. She was agreat fit and has thrived in the program. Sheneeded a tutor for one class since her foundation wasn’t strong, but she was determined tosucceed and has shown that at every step ofthe process.“You can’t admit a whole class of students withlow GPAs,” Nelson says, “but the benefit ofaverages is that there is always room for somepeople whose GPA was not the best indicationof their potential for success.”6A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
How can you elicit the most meaningful information fromprospects?JoAnn Canales, senior-dean-in-residence forthe Council of Graduate Schools and a GREboard member, says that for a graduateprogram’s admissions to be truly holistic,officials first must think about what theyare looking for in a student and come upwith an overall rubric that uses components that align with those outcomes. It’salso necessary to put together an informedadmissions committee with review members who understand the nuances of theprocess and applications, says Canales,who retired in August 2019 as the foundingdean of the College of Graduate Studies atTexas A&M University at Corpus Christi.She recommends that every candidatebe evaluated based on the same criteria.Programs that are clear and explicit abouttheir application requirements and whatmaterials and information they are looking for, she says, have a better chance ofensuring that comparable data is collected.Providing a standard form for résumés, forexample, can ensure that all prospectivestudents present the same types of factsand details in a singular format. It is alsoadvisable, Canales says, that work experience of all kinds, regardless of setting, beincluded to give a broader impression ofthe candidate.Likewise, programs might want to createa process in which recommendations aresubmitted on a standard form, rather thanindividual letters on letterhead that mightimpress — or disappoint — a reviewer. Thisalso precludes giving too much weight, saysCanales, to well-written letters or lettersfrom prestigious schools.Being deliberate about personal statement prompts is also key, Canales says. Ifa college is too general in its request fora personal statement, it is open to interpretation. In some cases, that can be goodbecause it lets admissions officials see whatthe question evokes in the student. However, if the question is too broad, then theresponse could be too ambiguous.“Different individuals might interpret itdifferently, and reviewers may react differently, which could lead to an inequitable assessment,” she says. “Additionally, withoutan explicit rubric for assessing the contentfocused on clarity, mechanics, specificity,the assessment can be quite subjective.”7A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
How can you guard against bias?A 2018 report entitled Master’s Admissions: Transparency, Guidance, and Training, by the Council of Graduate Schools,recommends that institutions provideinformation and support to help admissions committees avoid unintentional biasin the review process. Only 26 percent ofthe graduate schools participating in thesurvey reported that their institutions provided such training.Only 26 percent of the graduateschools participating in thesurvey reported that theirinstitutions provided suchtraining.At Cornell University over the past coupleof years, many graduate programs havebeen critically examining their admissionsreview practices, including how to preventbias. The university has held faculty workshops and panel discussions on such topics, and it has set up an online resourceto educate professors. The site includes aseries of videos that describe how biasescan influence decision making without aperson realizing it. One lesson, for example, is entitled Explicit vs. Implicit Bias, andanother is Attitudes and Stereotypes.“Our directors of graduate studies are veryengaged,” says Sara Xayarath Hernández,associate dean for inclusion and studentengagement at the Graduate School.“Many are willing to consider ways inwhich they cannot only improve theiradmissions practices, but also how theycan contribute to creating more inclusiveresearch and learning environments.”8A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
How can you be sure the essays and recommendations areauthentic?Many admissions teams say there really isno way to adequately or accurately assesswhether the words are the words of an applicant or whether they’ve been finessed bya parent, professor, or college consultant.Many institutions require applicants to certify that the content is theirs, not someoneelse’s, and that they didn’t receive unduehelp. Still other admissions committees relyon actual GRE essay responses becausethey are written in a monitored setting,where candidates cannot receive any helpor coaching.Some institutions are moving away fromasking for formal recommendations, asmost candidates choose recommenderswho are going to make nice comments.Instead, the applications ask for referenceswho can be contacted to answer questionsabout the candidate.The University of Nebraska Medical Center’sInterdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, which has been using ho-listic admissions since it was created in 2015,no longer accepts letters of recommendation that are personal in nature. Rather, itrequests letters from specific categories ofindividuals, such as a faculty member fromwhom the applicant has taken an upper-level science course, a research mentor, or asupervisor. All of these changes have beenmade to the program’s application formsand associated instructions.Interviews with the biomedical candidatesare a huge component of the admissions decisions process because they are an effectiveway to assess noncognitive variables. Thereviewers also compare the communicationskills evidenced in the personal interviewswith the quality of the writing in the personalstatements. “This can often identify situations in which the student received considerable assistance with the written personalstatement,” says Karen Gould, associate professor and vice chair for graduate educationfor the department of genetics, cell biology,and anatomy.9A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
What does the future hold for holistic admissions?Admissions professionals are uncertain whatthe future of holistic admissions looks like,except to say they are sure it will continue togrow. Some say their institutions need to investmore in admissions staffing so more timecould be spent getting to know candidates in amultifaceted way.type-fits-all kind of approach. Rather, they arelooking for general techniques to adopt thatstill can be flexible to meet the needs of theindividual program. Only then can a graduateprogram create a unique and effective learningenvironment for students who have differenteducational backgrounds and life experiences.Many graduate-admissions decision makersdesire more guidance and direction. They arenot sure they are doing it right, and they wouldlike to know more about the process and howto develop effective rubrics. Most caution thatthey are not advocating for standardizing holistic admissions practices to the point of a one-“Holistic review affords opportunities for accessthat might otherwise be overlooked, and thatbetter levels the playing field,” says Canales. “Iwould argue that holistic admissions can workfor all graduate programs anywhere especiallybecause it forces conversations that otherwisemight not occur.”10A Promising Practice: Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education
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2 A romising ractice Holistic Admissions in U.S. Graduate Education Holistic admissions is becomi
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