September, 2008
Gameday Coming to Vanderbilt: students already making ESPN acronym signs
Sep. 29, 2008—There are two things I learned yesterday that I didn’t know the day before: 1) The largest truck stop in the world is right outside of Davenport, Iowa. I mean it’s huge. Driving to Chicago from Des Moines (for college fairs and high school visits), you can’t miss it. It takes like a full minute...
Get your nose out of a book?
Sep. 26, 2008—Not sure you if guys saw this week’s VUCast but it opens up a nice window into some of the cool things our professors are doing in classes at Vandy. The video chronicles an English class discussion on the history and culture of coal mining held at a professor’s house with music superstar Kathy Mattea in attendance. I find that...
Tenth Day Enrollment Update
Sep. 17, 2008— Recently, the annual “10th day” came and went here on Vanderbilt’s campus. Tenth day, uncreatively referring to the 10th day of the Fall semester when we line up all the students on alumni lawn and physically count them all. Well, not really, but we do take a final snapshot of the current state of...
The College Admissions Essay Part II: Beyond gimmicks and hooks
Sep. 12, 2008—We talked yesterday about the importance of voice in your college application essay. Today let’s discuss the second insight your college application gives our admission officers, specifically, how you put your thoughts together to convey a point. In college a buddy of mine introduced me to a friend of his at a party like this, “Hey...
The College Application Essay Part I: Answers from the wizard in aisle 9c
Sep. 11, 2008—My two year old son likes to ask me to tell him stories right before bedtime. I weakly protest but ultimately acquiesce in the effort to get him off to dreamland. Quite candidly though, I suck at it. He is a tough, but forgiving audience, mostly finding a matchbox car more entertaining after about two...