Wrapping Up Travel Season – What Comes Next?
Hopefully, you’ve had the chance to meet an admissions representative from our office in the past few months. Officers (including myself) from Vanderbilt traveled extensively this fall in order to meet prospective students in their hometowns. If you didn’t get to meet one of us in your region, come visit us! OUA is open six days a week during the school year.
My fall is flying by! I can’t believe we’re already in the middle of October, seriously where did summer go? I’m wrapping up my last two weeks in the Chicagoland area and then I will cap off travel season with a visit to a national college fair in Indianapolis, Indiana. By the close of this month, the vast majority of our fall recruitment travel is complete – so then what are admissions officers doing?
We’re reading your applications! As of this posting we already have several thousand applications submitted and hundreds pour in every week. Last year Vanderbilt read 21,811 applications for freshmen admission – and each application is looked at by at least two pairs of eyes. Every college is different, but at Vanderbilt we practice the reader-recruiter model in undergraduate admissions. This means that the person who recruits in your geographic region this fall is the person who reads your application when you apply. This helps us to build relationships with families, high schools, and resources in geographical areas.
As admissions officers trickle back into Nashville at the end of this month they will start reading Early Decision I applications from their respective territories. We read all ED I applications by the week after Thanksgiving, then we will spend the end of November and the beginning of December admitting our first students of the Class of 2015! Admission decisions for ED I applicants will mail to students around December 15th.
I know it’s hard to even think about the winter holidays (particularly since it’s 83 degrees in Chicago today!), but the two months between now and then will fly by for both admissions officers and prospective students. If you have questions about what’s going on behind-the-scenes, let me know.