The hierarchy of values

The school you're applying to will leave little hints about their process for creating your narrative. Most of these hints can be found on their common data set¹. In section C6, the school will rank what matters most to least in your application. In essence, they are giving you their perceived and public hierarchy of values, the formula they use for constructing your narrative.

Here's Emory University's hierarchy of values:

courtesy of their common data set

Some things that may surprise you:

• Recommendation letters > SAT score

• Volunteer work > Work experience

• Level of applicant’s interest < State residency

Note how I added perceived and public before calling it the hierarchy of values. As we will see later, the process of analyzing your application is more nuanced than this diagram, but this is a good start.

1. The common data set is a form that most universities fill out each year, containing information about the school in general, but also their admissions process. If you Google [school] common data set you’ll usually find it. Unfortunately, some schools don’t fill out one.