Behind the Scenes of File Review Training
It’s our office’s favorite time of year again: the season of reviewing applications! Every year, the USC Office of Admission has a full week of what we call “File Review Training”. This week consists of various sessions, most of which is led by our senior leadership team in charge of application review. We cover everything ranging from an overview of the scope of college admissions across the world to anything that is new for our process. Leaders of our admission team share important updates and information as we enter a new cycle of the year that we most commonly refer to as “reading season”. They train our team on all aspects of the application process. One session, for example, was about the proper use of standardized test scores (since we are a test-optional institution). We also had multiple sessions throughout the week where we all reviewed applications together. These norming sessions helped ensure that our entire team is on the same page as we dive into this new part of the year.
We also welcomed speakers from other departments around campus to listen in on the sessions or share new details. In addition to the USC Office of Admission, each school at USC has its own individual admission team. We collaborate with them throughout the application review process, so it’s important to make sure they have the latest and greatest. There was a lot of new information and important content for our office to cover this year. One of the most notable new parts to this year’s cycle is Early Decision for the Marshall School of Business. Our office had lots of insightful discussions amongst ourselves and a colleague at another institution that has ED. We talked about the binding nature of Early Decision and how this new element to our process can not only affect our applicants interested in business but also the institution as a whole. We also discussed some exciting new majors for undergraduate students, such as the Data Science major and the Social Work major.
Our office takes this week of training very seriously, but we also try to have fun throughout the week. This year, Halloween fell on one of our training days. This meant that our office had to have a costume competition… (most costumes are pictured below).
File Review Training provides our team with all the tools we need to have a successful and smooth reading season. It’s a great opportunity to connect with other departments and get all of our questions answered before diving into your applications. We are excited to learn about all of our amazing applicants throughout the next few months!
Written by: Jaelin Robin, Assistant Director, USC Office of Admission