Top 10 Insights from the Deans of Admissions at Yale, Dartmouth and Brandeis.
The Admissions Beat
1. Data is the starting point, not the decision-maker
At Yale, admissions officers first use academic data to confirm a student’s ability to do the work. For most applicants, the answer is yes — data simply opens the door to deeper review.
“At Yale we use data to essentially answer the preliminary question, ‘Is a student prepared to do the academic work at our institution?’ …for most students in our applicant pool, the answer to that question is yes, the student does have the preparation academically to do well at Yale. And then we turn to the rest of the application file.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
2. Transcripts tell a story beyond GPA
Committees read transcripts as narratives — focusing on course choices, rigor, and academic trajectory, rather than relying solely on a single GPA number.
“At Yale we use data to essentially answer the preliminary question, ‘Is a student prepared to do the academic work at our institution?’ …for most students in our applicant pool, the answer to that question is yes, the student does have the preparation academically to do well at Yale. And then we turn to the rest of the application file.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
3. Academic challenge matters more than perfection
Officers look for students who have stretched themselves, especially in their junior and senior years, rather than those who have stayed within their comfort zones.
“We’re looking for students who have challenged themselves in high school through rigorous courses…We’re not looking for perfection. We don’t have a rubric.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
“I wouldn’t be completely worried about a very difficult ninth grade year. We understand that students sometimes have a tough transition to high school and we are looking more closely at more recent grades.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
“I want to assure everyone that we admit plenty of students with Bs on their transcripts.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
4. College-level or advanced coursework demonstrates readiness
Evidence of engaging in college-level or honors courses signals that a student has tested their limits and is ready for university-level rigor.
“Part of the evidence I think is seeing that a student has at least dabbled, if not more than dabbled, in some rigorous work that might be a proxy for college level work. So maybe that’s an honors level, maybe that’s a dual-enrollment course. Maybe that’s taking a course at a community college over the summer, maybe it’s AP or IB.” — Emily Roper-Doten, Brandeis
“We hear very loudly and clearly from our faculty that the performance in some of these AP and IB classes is incredibly predictive of how students do at Yale, particularly in introductory math courses.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
5. Regional familiarity adds fairness
Each admissions officer knows their assigned high schools and reads files with an understanding of the local curriculum, grading culture, and available opportunities.
“We actually organize the world into different geographic portfolios…it’s their job to understand the high schools in their admissions territory and in their context.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
“There is someone responsible for reviewing the applications from the state of Michigan, and that individual understands the different context of a student applying from the Upper Peninsula or the suburbs of Detroit or East Lansing.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
6. School profiles provide essential context
Admissions teams rely on school-provided profiles to contextualize a student’s achievements — such as available APs, grading policies, or average test ranges.
“The school provides us a pretty good amount of detail in the school profile for what courses are offered, what the average GPA is at the school, the average number of APs is at the school. Sometimes school will offer us the average standardized test score for the school so that we can put that in context.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
7. Subject preparation should align with intended major
For example, engineering applicants are expected to show readiness through strong coursework in math and physics.
“For my time at Olin, we were really looking for evidence of calculus. We wanted to see calculus in the high school experience because our curriculum sort of made an assumption that there was calculus there…We also were looking for physics. That’s one of the core sciences that engineering is built on.” — Emily Roper-Doten, Brandeis
8. Standardized tests can strengthen academic evidence
While holistic review dominates, strong test scores can reinforce the story told by grades and coursework.
“If the testing is there, it has the potential for it to reinforce what we’re seeing. Maybe it backs up the type of preparation that we’re seeing in the classroom. Maybe it helps give context to something.” — Emily Roper-Doten, Brandeis
“You should take the tests. You would be keeping your options open by taking the SAT or the ACT…You won’t have the data you need to make a decision about submitting testing if you actually don’t have the scores.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
9. The SAT remains a reliable predictor of performance
Yale’s data continues to show that SAT scores correlate most strongly with academic success in their classrooms.
“Turns out actually that the SAT or the ACT is the single best predictor of a student’s academic performance at Yale. And particularly the math SAT in persistence and some of our science majors.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
“If the testing is there, it is equally important as the transcript…But it does not tell the same story as the transcript can tell us.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
10. Context defines strength, not numbers alone
A 30 ACT may sit below Yale’s median, but if it’s 10 points higher than anyone from that student’s high school in years, it becomes an exceptional achievement in context.
“Students could look at our testing profile and say, ‘Okay, I’ve got a 30 ACT that is not above the median score that students at Yale will admit,’ but actually for the admissions committee…that 30 ACT could be 10 points higher than anyone has scored in that high school in years, and that score is actually transcendent.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
“We ground everything we do in context. Just like we review the transcripts with a contextual lens, we view the standardized testing with a contextual lens.” — Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale
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