Normally it's only radio DJs that take requests, but when blog reader "iloveucla" asked if we could write a blog about how we read our freshman applications, I thought it was a great idea, and voila! The answers you seek are below:
UCLA application readers can be divided primarily into 3 groups: UARS/EAOP (Early Academic Outreach Program) employees, employees in other UCLA departments, and qualified community members. People outside of UARS/EAOP who are interested in being application readers must apply for the position.
After we have our some 150 readers selected, we undergo a VERY thorough training process. I can personally assure all of our applicants that everyone involved with the application read process takes it incredibly seriously. All application readers, new and returning, complete an extensive application training process before they are allowed to start reading and ranking actual applications.
From the official 2008-2009 Freshman Admissions Policy:
Selection is based on a comprehensive review of all information--both academic and personal--presented in the application. All applications are read twice, in their entirety, by professionally trained readers. After independently reading and analyzing a file, the reader determines a comprehensive score that is the basis upon which the student is ultimately admitted or denied. In addition, admissions managers conduct multiple checks for consistency and completeness throughout the reading process. While this evaluation process is based on human judgments rather than a system that quantifies factors and incorporates them into a numerical formula, the extensive reader training, comprehensive reading of files, as well as other monitoring procedures, ensure that the process is highly reliable. Formal tests of reliability are conducted regularly to assure quality control.
So we spend December and January reading and evaluating applications in accordance with the guidelines that we by then can recite in our sleep. Every application gets read at least twice, and, as the policy states, there are myriad quality controls in place to make sure that applicants are being reviewed fairly and accurately.
Because we receive so many applications (55,369 for fall 2008) from so many highly qualified students, we are only able to offer admission to approximately 1/4 of our freshman applicants, which is why I would recommend that students apply to at least 4 UC campuses, and any other universities they think might be a good fit, in addition to UCLA. Best of luck to all students applying to college this year!
For those of you who are waiting to receive admissions decisions from colleges and universities across the country this year, it might seem like 2008 is a leap year just to keep the month of March away one day longer and draw out the excrutiating waiting process, but hang in there! You're almost done.