"Highly Selective US Colleges have a Holistic Admissions Process"

Instead of only looking at test scores and grades, the highly selective American universities deploy a holistic admissions process. Each admissions committee is trying to get as full a portrait as possible of the applicant including his activities outside the classroom, says Jacques Steinberg, senior editor at The New York Times and author of “The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College.”