Understanding Holistic and Contextual Review

As you research  colleges, write your essays, and fill out the Common Application or QuestBridge Application, you may be wondering: How do admissions officers read and evaluate applications? What factors do they consider? What do terms like “holistic admissions” or “contextual admissions” really mean? We know the college admissions process can feel mysterious and confusing at times, so we’re here to help break things down and give you a glimpse into our process! 

First, let’s dig a bit deeper into the “why” behind holistic review. When admissions officers read an application, we aim  to understand who YOU are as a person so we can understand how you might fit into the community of our school. We want to see if you’re someone who would thrive at Barnard — taking classes through our Foundations curriculum, which promotes critical thinking across disciplines, while learning inside the classroom of a women’s college and  outside the classroom in New York City.

Through holistic review, we look  at all the components of your application to see how they come together to tell us a story about you, like pieces of a puzzle. And we really care about all the pieces! We are looking closely at your academic record, personal statement, answers to our Short Answer Questions, activities list, letters of recommendation, test scores (if you choose to submit them), and anything else you choose to include in your application. No one piece of your application will be “make or break.” We evaluate all of these pieces within your personal context, such as what classes and clubs are (or aren’t) offered at your school, responsibilities that you may have at home, and the geographical region that you’re coming from. This also means that we are never comparing applicants to each other directly, because everyone has a different story.

We care about the individual circumstances that have impacted you and your journey throughout high school, because your context also affects the opportunities you may have had or not had. We’re not expecting you to have taken six AP classes by the time you graduate if your school doesn’t offer APs! We don’t expect you to spend 15 hours a week volunteering at a local shelter if you have to take care of your younger siblings after school and cook for your family every night. If your commute to school is more than an hour long every single day or you have limited transportation options to and from school, you may not be able to attend club meetings that are early in the morning, or you might not be able to stay late after school. These are all important factors that help us better understand what resources and opportunities have been available to you, and how you have challenged yourself within those circumstances.

While some of this contextual information is available in the school profile that your counselor submits, we also encourage you to utilize the space in your application to share more of your personal context with us. You can add details under the Additional Information section in the Common Application or QuestBridge Application, so be sure to take advantage of these spaces.

Now that we’ve highlighted  the value of context within our review process, let’s tackle a question that students always ask: What are you looking for in applicants?

Although we do seek students who are academically excellent, we’re not just looking for the valedictorian from each high school. We seek to admit students who are also passionate, curious, and engaged in their communities, identifying students who have demonstrated academic and intellectual potential, and whom we believe are ready to flourish at Barnard. And of course, we’re looking for students who genuinely want to be here — students who have done their research on Barnard and understand what a unique community we offer in addition to the abundance of resources and support here. 

One final note: Be authentic! We’re interested in getting to know who you really are, both as a person and as a student. It may be tempting to try and present yourself in a way that you think will be appealing to us or to just write what you think we want to hear in your essays. But without information that is true to you, 1) we miss out on getting to know your genuine self, and 2) we may not be able to make an admissions decision that will actually be a good fit for you. We want to make sure all the students we admit will be happy and successful at Barnard. With that in mind, we encourage you to be your authentic self and trust the process, knowing that you will end up where you need to be!