College Applications Demand "Context," Not Just Grades & Scores

This post is only for serious college-bound students:

Today's New York Times has a story about what colleges are looking for in applicants from high school:

Across the country, selective public colleges and universities are taking a page from their private counterparts and implementing what is commonly called a holistic or comprehensive admissions process.

The trend is partly a function of rising application numbers at sought-after publics, which is a result, in turn, of the climbing cost of private higher education and a peaking population of high school seniors. Many applicants, it seems, easily meet academic requirements. Merely pushing average grades and test scores ever higher won’t necessarily yield the most vibrant student body.

Here for link to the full story