Blog & Podcast Series 

The traditional Celtic holiday of Imbolc has just passed, marking the point between the winter solstice and spring equinox and celebrating the official stirrings of spring. In perfect harmony with Imbolc are the stirrings of a new flock of Pelicans. In Admission offices at Loomis and schools like it, it’s the time of moving from recruitment into evaluation. We are just beginning to put the flesh on the bones of what we know about our prospective students, having spent many hours interviewing them either online or in person over the past six months. Of course, an admission interview barely scratches the surface of who our applicants are; we learn a bit about them, but we learn about the things we ask them about, and only what they decide to share. An interview is not exactly a 360-evaluation where we can assess a candidate’s fit from all sides.

Reading applications, then, is our version of the 360-evaluation. Admission officers use the term “holistic” to describe this process. Whatever the term, the reality remains the same: it takes a lot of time. Each record consists of many components with many pages of text. It begs the question, then: how do admission officers at schools like Loomis read applications and make decisions on candidates when we have only about six weeks to do so?

Genuine admission: for one, we read quickly. Given the pressure of the timeline we are working under, it’s a necessity. We look across the information we are reading, trying to get a sense of what the candidate is good at and what they still need to work on, what they are interested in, what they enjoy doing and learning about, and how they spend their time. We look for different types of personalities, as well, which can be assessed through the tone and content of your writing, what the adults in your life have to say about their interactions with you, and the report from the person who interviewed you. As I sometimes tell people when they ask me “what we’re looking for,” a school consisting solely of 735 confident, ambitious extroverts on one 300-acre plot would probably not be a very happy place … and if you’ve ever visited Loomis, you know it's a pretty happy place. (Except perhaps when we go through the entire winter without a snow day. Fingers crossed, Pelicans!!). If there is a typo in your application, we are unlikely to catch it, and if we do, we are unlikely to take time to document it — although if you have multiple typos, and some of your teachers have referenced a lack of attention to detail, we might note that trend. Does this mean that you will not be admitted to Loomis? No. But that trend will be one factor in the overall assessment of the file. That’s what holistic evaluation is all about.

But the reading of the file isn’t the only part. The documentation of what we read is as important as the reading itself, especially when reading a lot of information in a very short amount of time. Readers must provide clear and consistent documentation of what they have read, and it has to be based on the evidence in the file. Think of it a bit like taking a test on what they’ve just learned. For example, if a reader notes that a student possesses exceptional intellectual curiosity, they then must document how and where this is evident. That’s because everyone brings their own biases, perceptions, and experiences to whatever they are reading, and we must ensure that the process is as equitable as possible to each candidate no matter who is reading it.

Complicating the process is that the information we have is limited. Yes, we have self-reported information from you, the grades, courses, and testing (if you submitted it), demographic information, and observations from many of the adults who surround you. What we don’t have is everything else. Crystal ball included! We don’t know how you will grow or who you will become in your years at Loomis. We don’t know if your passion for volleyball will turn into a passion for sculpture. We don’t know if you will find your purpose in our Pearse Hub for Innovation, in our Writing Studio, or somewhere else we never expected. We don’t know if you will make new friends who are radically different from you, the same as you, or a bit of both. And you don’t know any of those things either. So, all we can do is make the best decisions we can with the information we do have in the very short amount of time do it in. That’s why admission decisions can sometimes seem flawed, unfair, or difficult to understand. It’s a human process — it has to be. No AI bot is going to choose our new Pelicans, even if at times it would seem a lot easier and more efficient to do so. The process is messy and imperfect, but we take the process very seriously and care deeply about respecting the process that ultimately leads to decisions we make.

My favorite admissions season, therefore, may not in fact be the fall excitement of sharing Loomis with prospective families or the thrill of learning who said “YES!” each spring. To me, the heart of admission work is right now: the Imbolc season. This is the time where I feel most inspired by our mission and by the stories that I read every day. It makes me excited not just about the future of Loomis, but about the future of our country and the world. I feel honored by the small window I’m provided into that future thanks to the work that I do. I may have a lot of files to read, but I know that this precious season is a fleeting one, and March 10 is coming. Spring awaits!