This is one of the more commonly known facts about college admission offices. Admission officers review your application for a fraction of the time you spend writing it. At the point an admission officer receives your file, everything is organized (and sometimes summarized). This only barely remedies the time crunch admission officers face.

In fact, facing the large number of folders they have to read each day, admission officers capitalize on this preparation by quickly skimming an application to see if it is a clear rejection. In other words, time plays an even bigger factor than many students think.

The consequence of having a large number of applications to read in a short amount of time is compounded by the wider context. Admission officers are often tired after months of wading through applications; the process becomes dreary. There is pressure to wake the admission officer up and make them want to invest time going over your folder.

And that is well warranted. Admission officers love reading some applications. They want to get excited, but it is your job to get them going. Time pressure leads to a trade-off between applications, and the you cannot expect the reviewer to dig through details to find something they want. You have to make something pop out at them. Some strategies in my next post.