Making a Pecan Pie: Understanding and Supporting The Holistic Review Process in Admissions

Holistic reviews are a common practice employed by colleges in the United States to make admissions decisions. It is an individualized review process where reviewers assess an applicant's potential by considering various criteria including academic metrics, adversities faced, and personal attributes. While the factors considered in such reviews are broadly known, a detailed walk-through of the process is absent in the existing literature. This is important to understand what is done in practice and to identify opportunities for technological interventions to support the complex and changing process. We employed cognitive task analysis and a socio-organizational approach to understand the holistic review process at a highly-selective, private university. We found the process to be nuanced and complex owing its complexity both to the numerous variables involved and the reviewers' thought processes. We present a rigorous, structured characterization of the review process and suggest possible leverage points for applying visualization decision-support tools.