All college students are given the right to review their educational records through the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. As previously reported, a group of concerned students at Stanford University started an initiative for students to go forward and review their admission records with their schools.
The Fountain Hopper, a Stanford student publication, posted a five-step guide instructing students how to file a request to review their academic records through the Office of the Registrar. The university is then legally obliged to respond within 45 days in accordance with FERPA. The law applies to all universities in the country.
Students who are curious about the application review process or about their specific individual application can use the “Contact Us” page on the official website to send an email to the admissions office requesting a meeting with an admissions officer.
MSU applications are reviewed electronically and the Office of Admissions keeps all information received from high school students, which is available to review by request.
High school transcripts, personal statements and test scores are all logged into the system and divided between counselors. High school grade point averages are adjusted from what is reported by the students’ high schools to remove classes like band or physical education that may serve to boost GPA.
At first, only one counselor will see a student’s filed application and review for certain criteria (see pullout box).
All of these can contribute to whether or not the admissions officer will make a recommendation to admit the student when a board of counselors meet to review the applications.
Senior associate director of the Office of Admissions Mike Cook detailed the target number of incoming freshmen students admitted each fall to be around 7,800.
“Out of 35,000 applicants, we account for students going to different schools or not choosing to come to MSU for some reason,” Cook said. “So we admit freshmen on a rolling basis to make sure we don’t admit a higher amount of students than we can accommodate.”
