Stress is defined as “psychological and physical strain or tension generated by physical, emotional, social, economic, or occupational circumstances, events, or experiences that are difficult to manage or endure.” For high school students, stress is rampant. One cause is the unknown for college admission decisions.
Last year, Green Hope’s Class of 2025 enrolled in over 80 universities, all with unique admission requirements. Using the common data sets (a report sent by universities), this article averages the rubrics used by these universities to assess student applicants. Based on an analysis of 44 universities Green Hope High School students enrolled in, the common data set indicators for these institutions are averaged on a 4 point scale. A 4 means the indicator is very important, 3 is somewhat important, 2 is considered, and 1 is not considered. Here are the indicators ranked in importance with their average scores:
- Academic GPA (3.955)
- Rigor of Secondary Record (3.705)
- Standardized Test Scores (2.795)
- Application Essay (2.795)
- Extracurriculars (2.591)
- Recommendations (2.591)
- Character/Personality Qualities (2.591)
- Talent/Ability (2.477)
- Class Rank (2.227)
- Volunteer Work (2.205)
- Work Experience (2.136)
- First Generation (1.932)
- State Residency (1.886)
- Geographic Residence (1.727)
- Level of Applicant’s Interest (1.614)
- Alumni/Student Relation (1.386)
- Interview (1.318)
- Religious Affiliation/Commitment (1.114)
The indicators mentioned above are divided into two categories: academic and nonacademic. Emma Bumgardner, Green Hope’s counselor for last names Pe-Sn, explains that admission officers use academic indicators to initially screen student applicants to gauge whether or not they are a good fit for the institution. Admission officers then use the nonacademic indicators, such as extracurriculars, “to [then] determine whether or not you’re going to get admitted to a school.”
On the surface, this system may seem like it is best to overload a course load and take as many advanced classes as possible. However, Ms. Bumgardner tells students to “take classes that you are genuinely interested in, not just because everybody says you should take it to get into college.”
Matthew Katsuleris (Mr. “Kats”), Green Hope’s Career Development Coordinator, also advises students to take advanced classes in areas students are interested in, especially when these classes can be used to explore possible career paths and post-secondary studies. A student interested is business could take “AP chemistry, physics 1, physics 2 and physics c,” Mr. Kats analogized, “but if you want to go study [business], and you’ve never taken a business class, why are you taking all these APs that don’t align with what you want to do [out of] high school?”
Extracurricular activities should be approached in a similar way. Despite being important to admission decisions, students should not overload themselves, especially with activities they are uninterested in. In fact, Ms. Bumgardner says admission officers, “would much rather see somebody who’s only involved in a couple of clubs, but they have been involved in th[ose] clubs their entire high school career.”
According to Mr. Kats, these activities allow students to explore content areas to pursue possible areas of study. Mr. Kats encourages students to get involved in clubs because “the clubs we have here [at Green Hope] cover just about every area inside of a career path that you could ever have.”
One piece of the college indicators, work experience, serves this purpose as well. Mr. Kats feel that jobs teach students skills they need to know and through work opportunities students can be equipped with a further understanding of what they seek to do.
One other indicator reported on the common data set is talent/ability. As defined in a common data set, this indicator allows special consideration to students who have talent in areas of study at the institution like art or sports.
The 18 indicators reported for college admission decisions cover a wide range of areas and one person can only do so much. “I really encourage students to try to cancel out the outside noise as much as possible,” said Ms. Bumgardner, “it is so easy to give in to what the Green Hope culture is and what you know the community is telling you to do, but like you are your own person, and you know what’s best for you.” A part of this culture is taking a lot of AP classes and extracurricular activities, often overwhelming individuals due to the schools highly competitive atmosphere. Ms. Bumgardner advises students, “You have a plate of everything that you can handle, but you can only put so much stuff on that plate right before it’s like falling off.”
For a more in depth look at the common data set for a particular university, students should search “(university name) common data set (year)” and the indicators are found under section C7 of the common data set. Duke University, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s common data sets from 2024-25 are available to view, among many other institutions.
