Holistic review is widely practiced in graduate admissions. However, despite
its prevalence, there is a need to understand how practitioners approach
holistic graduate admissions, how its practice relates to institutional
priorities, and its potential implications for equitable access to graduate
education. This exploratory mixed method study captures the perspectives of
graduate enrollment management (GEM) professionals on the (a) consideration of
applicants’ personal attributes for evaluating their potential for graduate
degree completion, and (b) alignment between applicants’ personal attributes
with strategic institutional priorities. Applicants’ professionalism and
integrity were reported most important when evaluating applicants’ potential
for graduate degree completion. Applicants’ multicultural competency was
reported most important for the institutional priority of increasing graduate
student diversity. Participants’ overarching perception of holistic review was
that it provides important flexibility during the application evaluation
process. Implications for practice are discussed including the need for
institutions to (a) make the consideration of applicants’ personal attributes
transparent to applicants by defining the attributes and aligning required
application materials to these attributes and (b) create internal
methodologies to ensure reliable and consistent evaluation of applications.
