Policy Briefs
- Michigan Education, December 2019. Interview and Summary of Landscape Tool for College Admissions
- Bastedo, Michael N., Nicholas Bowman, Kristen M. Glasener, Jandi L. Kelly, and Emma Bausch. November 2017. “What Is Holistic Review in College Admissions?”
- Admissions officers have varying definitions of holistic review, but those who espouse contextualized admissions practices are significantly more likely to admit low-SES applicants, particularly at the most selective colleges. We review three types of holistic review: Whole File, Whole Person, and Whole Context, and recommend that admissions offices adopt a contextualized conception of holistic review.
- Bastedo, Michael N., Nicholas Bowman, and K. C. Deane. June 2017. “The Surprising Factors That May Influence Holistic Admissions Decisions at Selective Colleges.”
- In a national study of selective colleges and universities, admission officers reveal that many applications do not receive a full holistic read, and admissions officers’ backgrounds can influence their likelihood to admit low-SES applicants. We recommend increasing the quality of high school information, establishing accountability mechanisms, and increasing the diversity of admissions officers.
- Bastedo, Michael N., Nicholas Bowman, Kristen M. Glasener, and Jandi L. Kelly. October 2016. “Increasing Admission of Low-Income Students in Engineering.”
- In a randomized experiment, admissions officers were 13 percentage points more likely to admit a low-SES engineering student when they had more robust data on high school context. We recommend raising awareness of cognitive biases and increasing the quality of context data for all students,
Revised: December 21, 2019