$41 profit for each college rejection
Every year around August I start seeing ads for temporary readers. Yesterday someone was even in a college counselors facebook group asking what other schools admissions offices were paying this year as she was on a tight budget…… so it got me thinking.
I wonder how many students and parents know that many colleges outsource the first round of reading applications, yep, surprise. Let me explain how this could be concerning.
You pay $45 to apply to a college that you meet the minimum qualifications to attend. It could be a reach or a safety school, but if you are considering it, you want someone to take the time to review your application and give it the reverence it deserves. But the temporary reader is not getting paid that $45 to read your application, they are getting $4. See the ad below from Cornell. It pays $20 an hour and readers are expected to review 4-5 applications an hour, meaning they are paid $4 an application. $4 to approve or deny you for basic qualifications and determine your fate.
Janice is a newly single mom and needs to hire a lawyer she can’t afford, to help ensure she is going to get full custody of her two young kids. Her husband took the newer car when he left and this morning her car would not start so she had to call a friend to take the kids to school and ride the bus to work. She works in the financial aid department at a local University and today at the staff meeting, her boss presented opportunities to serve as readers at a few local colleges who were recruiting for temporary positions. Janice was immediately interested and applied. Upon being selected she want to a weekend long training in person and then was given a stack of 50 applications to read during the week.Her plan was to get the kids to bed by 8 each night and spend from 8:30-10:30 reading applications to meet her deadline and earn an extra $250 that week. The first night she got through 2 applications as it was her first time, meaning each application took her about 60 minutes instead of 5. The next night she got her reading down to 30 minutes each and by the third night she got down to 15 minutes an application. Then the kids got sick and she could not get them to bed until well after 11 and fell asleep with them in the rocking chair. Her week progressed like this and by Sunday she hired a teenager to take the kids so she could catch up and paid her $15 an hour. You can see where this is going. Before she even got through a small stack of applications, she spiked a fever and she herself was sick. The 8pm Sunday deadline was fast approaching, she had already spent $75 on an urgent care visit, $60 on a babysitter, and while she had only got through 28 of the 50 applications, she had to make that $250 by finishing all 50. She calculated how much time was remaining before 8, how many applications she had to review, and decided she could budget 1 minute 30 seconds per application so she did her best and quickly sorted the last of the applications into approved and denied and sent her list to admissions, dreading trying again next week, but also desperate. Next week she had an opportunity to do 100 applications.
Long isolated story? No……common. Not only for temporary readers but full time staff as well. They do their best, but the demands are great to PRODUCE.
So lesson learned…….
You can appeal if you met the minimum requirements and you feel like you should be admitted, highly selective schools may still say no but it is ok to ask for a second review given this is your ideal school (all humans can make mistakes)
The blood sweet and tears you spend on things may or may not be appreciated with the time and attention it deserves but the way it works is the one mistake you make will be exactly what people do see.
$4 is what they are paying people to read your application as a first screener. $4 to determine your fate. And they charged you $45. Yes your app may still go through a few more rounds but is still $4.
As fair as this process is supposed to be, it is still a bad system. Take it seriously or don’t, this is all just observations by Jamie using Jamie Math.