College admissions is the process through which students enter undergraduate colleges in the United States. Students apply to one or more colleges by submitting a dossier which each college evaluates by its own criteria. The college then decides whether to extend an offer of admission (and possibly financial aid) to the student. The process is entirely decentralized.

Admissions criteria may be completely mechanical, especially at large public colleges: a threshold for grade point average and/or standardized test scores, or even simply a high-school diploma ('open admissions'). They may be completely subjective at some small colleges: a perceived motivational and intellectual 'fit' based on essays, interviews, and personal recommendations. Most colleges combine the two.

The prestige, ranking, and presumably the quality of a college is roughly in inverse proportion to its acceptance rate; in elite institutions, under 10% are accepted, so admission is very competitive. Many students base their entire high school education on gaining entry into the college of their choice.

Considerations that go into admissions are: scores on standardized tests, typically the SAT or ACT; an admissions essay or personal statement; grade point average (GPA) in high school; teacher recommendations; a personal interview at the college or with an alumnus/a; special skills or talents which could contribute to the college (especially sports, but also music); service to the community; and other extracurricular activities.

High SAT scores and GPAs are not enough at the most selective institutions, which look for that 'something extra' that differentiates one high-achieving applicants from another. This may include a unique passion, or dedication to extracurricular activities.

Many colleges also actively seek to increase racial, economic, cultural, and geographic diversity among their students both by making special efforts to recruit diverse students, and by taking their background into consideration in admissions. Thus, disadvantaged and underrepresented minorities, including Native Americans, Blacks, and Latinos, often receive a boost in their applications due to their comparatively low representation among elite schools, a process known as affirmative action. Another select group of students receiving a comparable boost are known as legacy preferences. These are children of alumni, who are often preferred because the college wishes to maintain strong alumni ties--especially with those who contribute towards the college financially.

For students striving for the most elite institutions, a balance of good SAT I and SAT II scores (or ACT scores, which many schools accept and which is a more common test in parts of the country), good recommendations, good essays, a high GPA with a high class rank along with good awards and good extra curricular activities are the key to acceptance. Although this balance will help in admissions, sometimes they can be viewed as prerequisites to truly succeed in an elite institution of higher learning.

Occasionally the applicant may not get into a college due to factors outside of his or her immediate control. This pertains to the concept of need-blind admissions and yield protection.

Need-blind admissions involves the evaluation of applicants without regard to their financial ability to pay; the best-endowed universities pride themselves on giving financial aid to all those who have been selected for admission.

Less well-endowed universities such as Tufts University and Washington University in St. Louis have need-based admissions policies, which resulting in some high achieving applicants being waitlisted or even rejected due to the school's inability to provide enough need-based aid for the applicant's education due to strict limits in financial aid budgets.

Yield protection often occurs with the strongest applicants at schools that are yield-conscious. Yield refers to the proportion of students who matriculate (i.e. accept an admissions offer and attend the college) after acceptance to a college. If the yield rate is too low, some may view the school as undesirable. Yield-conscious schools who wish to inflate their yield or otherwise protect their yield from lowering employ such methods as waitlists and guaranteed transfer options to promising applicants who may appear to have numerous other college choices. Through waitlists, the applicant is not technically accepted and may never be unless the applicant shows active signs of interest in attending thereby not harming the school's acceptance rate or yield. Although the applicant has no real control over such policies, they can apply to other schools without such policies so as to not limit their options. The term "Tufts Syndrome" is sometimes used on college admissions message boards to refer to such practices of forced yield-protection, as schools like Tufts are perceived to waitlist and reject overqualified candidates for fear that they will choose other schools over themselves.

See also: College and university rankings

• [1]- Daily blog and website with many free resources about finding and getting into the best college.
• College Confidential - Popular forum for college admissions advice; geared towards applicants to elite colleges.
• AutoAdmit - Often off-topic law and college admissions advice forum; geared towards elite applicants.