What are Institutional Priorities? How Do They Impact Admissions Decisions?

Institutional priorities is a buzzword in college admission, but may be something students and families haven’t heard before. Institutional priorities refers to the qualities each college seeks in their applicants as they build the next incoming class. They often change from one year to the next—and sometimes even during the course of the same admissions cycle—triggered by the applications the school has actually received. They can be incredibly nuanced goals prioritizing several demographic factors at once, and they can be both broad (like aiming to enroll more in-state students) or very specific (such as when the football team needs to recruit a new quarterback).

These priorities often relate to the qualities a student can’t change about themself. Even those things that don’t necessarily seem like assets may factor into an institution’s priorities. Ironically, what advantages a student at one school might put the same candidate at a slight disadvantage at another. From one year to the next, the same students wouldn’t likely all be admitted to the same selective* institution because priorities shift.

Bottom line: Institutional priorities vary from school to school and from one year to the next.

*Selective colleges and universities are those who do not have space for all of the qualified students who apply. Selective colleges are typically defined as schools admitting fewer than half of their applicants. There are around 200 “selective” colleges in the US, out of approximately 4000 institutions of higher education.

What kinds of things do colleges prioritize?

Often, the simplest ones to discuss are the demographic qualities a college might prioritize. It can be easy to understand why they’d be important: balancing the ratio of in-state and out-of-state students, gender balance, the number of international or first generation students, public and private high school school ratios, etc. Race is no longer used in making admissions decisions, but colleges typically define diversity broadly and look for students with varied backgrounds, perspectives, and interests.

EXAMPLE: Here’s a simplified example. Let’s pretend the returning upperclass students at a selective college are 55% female, so the admissions team needs to be extra aware of the gender balance of the next incoming cohort. Then, when the applications arrive, 60% of them are from female students. Without paying attention to the balance, it would be easy to have 60% of the admitted students also be female, and eventually 60% of the enrolled group too.

Instead, with so many qualified candidates to choose from, the enrollment team can decide to admit a group of students who are half female and half male, likely enrolling a balanced class as well. What that means for applicants though, is that it’s a little bit tougher to be admitted as a female candidate this year because so many have applied, and the amount of space available is limited. It’s not likely that prospective students would notice the small difference, or that the caliber of students admitted would be noticeably different.

Another broad category that often needs to be balanced is “programs”. This could mean managing the total number of athletes or the number of athletes on each team. It could also refer to a university made up of several colleges keeping the ratio of students in each college balanced. Another example is limiting enrollment in the most popular majors, so they don’t grow beyond the school’s capacity to serve those students well.

EXAMPLE: My alma mater is a liberal arts school that also offers engineering and business programs. They are paying close attention to the ratio of students enrolling in the college of arts & sciences, the college of engineering, and the college of management as well as the number of students enrolling in some of the majors in each college. There might be a year when the admission rate for women applying for computer science is a bit higher than the men, but the admission rate for men applying to chemical engineering in the same year might be higher than both pools of prospective computer scientists.

Money can also be a factor in a college’s priorities. Some schools consider a student’s connection to alumni or possible donors an advantage, which might give them a boost. Sometimes in order to balance budgets, an institution is seeking more “full-pay” students These are students who won’t apply or qualify for financial aid.

It’s important to reiterate that all of the examples listed in this post refer to making decisions about who to admit among qualified candidates. No one wants to set a student up to fail, so it’s very rare that a college would knowingly admit someone who is not academically capable of doing the work in their programs.

How does one of these qualities or factors give a student an edge?

Sometimes things just work out! It could be a year when there’s a new data analysis major to build up, or when all of the bassoonists or hockey goalies have recently graduated. If years ago, without knowing anything about the openings at this college, you started to play the bassoon, discovered a talent as a hockey goalie, or developed a passion for data, you may have stumbled into a bit of an advantage at this particular school. There may be advantages for factors even less in your control as well. Maybe a Midwestern college is trying to grow the number of states represented in their student body and you come from an underrepresented state like Arizona, Alaska, or South Carolina. Additionally, some especially well-resourced schools have made promises about the generous financial aid offers given to any student they admit from certain financial backgrounds. (You still have to be admitted first, but maybe you’ll actually apply to the school, when you wouldn’t have if they weren’t promising to be so generous.)

Should you ask about a college’s priorities?

Absolutely! You can do some research to see what is important to the school by reading their mission statement and their strategic plan. The mission will speak to longstanding priorities, and the plan will highlight how they hope to evolve. You can also ask admissions officers about upcoming changes and strategic goals for the next incoming class. Remember that in most cases, institutional priorities will refer to qualities a student can’t change about themself, but this research could help you understand how you fit into the bigger picture.

There will always be some priorities that you won’t know about, and some admissions decisions won’t make sense from the outside. As you hear about who is getting admitted and who is not, remember that you’ll never know someone else’s whole story and there are so many factors being weighed by admissions officers all at once Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to compare yourself directly to other students. Institutional priorities can add to the unpredictability of admissions decisions; how do colleges choose between more than enough qualified candidates? How do they move forward knowing there aren’t really ”right” answers? Colleges decide what’s most important to them and let that guide their decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions about Institutional Priorities:

• What are institutional priorities?

  Institutional priorities are the qualities each college seeks in their applicants as they build their next incoming class. They often change from one year to the next—and sometimes even during the course of the same admissions cycle—triggered by the applications the school has actually received.

• Does every university have institutional priorities? Are they all publicly shared?

  DYes, every college has goals for their enrollment team as they build a new incoming class. What those goals are and how they achieve them is never totally public. Many colleges are happy to discuss some of their initiatives, especially around expanding their reach to new populations or growing new programs on their campuses.

• How do institutional priorities impact individual students when making admissions decisions?

  Institutional priorities are usually overarching goals and won’t impact students individually. However, if for example, it’s a goal to enroll more in-state students and many out-of-state students applied that year, admission will likely be more competitive for out-of-state applicants as a group. That means the in-state and out-of-state admission rates might vary, but it’s still hard to pinpoint how an individual decision may be impacted because there are always several factors at play in making each individual decision.

• Do these priorities affect one set of applications - EA, ED, regular decision - more than others?

  Yes and no. Depending on what happens in the early round(s) offered at an individual school, the goals for later round(s) could shift mid-year. College admission is as much art as it is science!