I want to start here by laying out a few terms and using them to introduce some of the key parts of the college application process. A lot of these words sound like pure jargon the first time you hear them, but once you put them back into the actual application process and understand them in context, you realize that each one maps onto a different person, system, or evaluation mechanism. If you get these basic concepts straight first, then later, when you move on to more concrete topics like building a college list, essays, and recommendation letters, everything becomes much easier.
Admission Officer
Abbreviation: AO
An admissions officer is the person at a university who is responsible for admissions. They read your application materials, evaluate your academic ability, personal experiences, and potential, and ultimately decide whether to admit you.
Beyond that, an AO’s responsibilities usually also include:
- Hosting information sessions: giving talks on campus or traveling to different places to introduce the school’s distinctive features and application process.
- School visits: personally visiting Target Schools and meeting with students and college counselors.
- Relationship management: staying in close contact with college counselors at key high schools in order to understand that school’s curriculum and the overall quality of its students.
The work of an admissions officer sounds very formal and professional, but as applicants, the most direct experience we usually have is through our actual interactions with them, and through how they end up interpreting your application materials. What follows is more my own observations and thoughts about admissions officers’ work style and depth of expertise.
I’ve always felt that the role admissions officers play in a university is pretty similar to the role HR plays in a company. Recruiters from some of the best firms I’ve interviewed with felt like the concierge staff at a luxury hotel: extremely service-minded, thoughtful down to the smallest detail, careful about arranging everything properly, and very respectful toward me. Recruiters at solid firms like Microsoft felt more easygoing and warm, kind of like the servers you meet in most restaurants in the U.S. Then there are some more mediocre companies where the experience is much worse: condescending, bossy, acting like I’m begging them to give me a job. As for university AOs, at least from the ones I’ve met, regardless of school, I’d say they mostly fall into the latter two categories: quite a few are genuinely nice and easygoing, but some do come off as rather arrogant.
That said, when it comes to professional judgment, AOs and HR are actually a bit different. A lot of company HR or recruiters may in fact be more familiar with a relatively specialized field, because they look at resumes in that area every day and deal constantly with hiring managers in that area. Over time, they at least develop an experience-based sense of the common backgrounds, common projects, and rough level within that field. By contrast, AOs have to deal with applicants from every discipline and every type, from humanities to STEM to the arts, so it’s hard for them to have especially deep expertise in any one specific area. Precisely because of that, unless you have one of those top-tier awards that even an outsider can recognize at a glance, what gets you admitted often isn’t just technical depth. It’s whether you can communicate your story, motivation, and potential in a way that’s compelling enough. I’ve heard that quite a few schools ask professors to help review applications, but logically speaking, many professors are already overwhelmed with their own work, so they may not have that much energy to invest in this kind of thing over the long term. Still, I don’t know that side particularly well, so readers who do are very welcome to correct me. Looking ahead, as AI-assisted tools gradually enter the admissions process, this may slowly change as well.
Common Application
Abbreviation: CA
Common App is the most widely used online application system for undergraduate admissions in the United States. Through Common App, students can fill in their basic information and core essay once, then send those materials to multiple partner schools, which greatly simplifies the application process.
Still, Common App is more like a unified entry point than something that turns every school into the same exact task. Many schools add their own supplemental essays, supplemental questions, or extra material requirements on top of Common App. So the best way to understand CA is not to treat it as “fill out one form and you’re done,” but to see it as the most basic and most commonly used underlying platform in the application process.