The admissions process is awash in numbers. Students accumulate grade-point averages and test scores. Colleges use statistical models to predict enrollment outcomes, and they tout their place in commercial rankings. In many ways, numbers simplify this complex enterprise. However, they have come to carry undue weight, says Martha Blevins Allman, director of admissions at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That is why she pushed her institution to revamp its admissions process. Last spring, Wake Forest announced that it would no longer require applicants to submit standardized-test scores. That decision brought national attention to the university, arguably the most prominent institution yet to go "test optional." The policy coincided with two other changes: Wake Forest asked this year's applicants to sit for personal interviews and to write responses to a series of prompts, such as "Define "cool"" and "What one thing did you learn today?" Allman hoped those changes would attract a more diverse group of applicants and allow her staff to better evaluate each student. On both counts, officials say, the experiment has succeeded. Wake Forest's admissions process was already holistic. Now, Allman says, "It's more art than science."