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Meet Alex Gano

Nov. 29, 2010—My hometown is Charleston, Illinois. I am the admissions counselor for Illinois (non-Chicago) and Southern California.  I share these territories with Nicole Molina.

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Thanksgiving Week Information

Nov. 23, 2010—Hopefully the information below helps keep you in the loop this holiday week!  I hope you have an amazing time with friends and family on Thanksgiving.  Relax and give yourself the break you deserve.

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Meet Torrey Morgan

Nov. 23, 2010—My hometown is Golden, Colorado, but I spent most of the past 13 years in Southern California and Seattle. I am the counselor responsible for the areas of DC, South Florida, and Wisconsin.  I also work with home school students.

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How We Read a File

Nov. 19, 2010—In a previous post I walked readers through how all of our mail makes it into a complete application file.  I ended with the file landing in the “Read me!” bin of my office.  The question begs, then what?  How does an admissions counselor actually read a file, what are we looking for, and where...

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TROUBLESHOOTING the Alumni Interview

Nov. 18, 2010—Here are a few troubleshooting tips for our alumni interview process.  If you have additional questions, please feel free to post in the comments and we’ll get you an answer shortly!

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Meet Mike Drish

Nov. 15, 2010—My hometown is Moline, Illinois. Dallas/Ft. Worth, China, Australia, and New Zealand are the areas I am responsible for as an admissions counselor.

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If you received an incomplete notice…

Nov. 10, 2010—Yesterday we sent out several hundred incomplete notices to students intending to apply Early Decision I.  We understand that many of these items are in our office and simply have not yet processed.  If you received a notice, don’t stress out, you will receive consideration under our ED I plan as long as your application...

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Vanderbilt Changes Lives

Nov. 9, 2010—Loren Pope’s tome Colleges That Change Lives offends me. Responding to the book, however, is difficult.  Here’s my dilemma: CTCL highlights 40 schools that deserve serious consideration from students as they progress towards post-secondary education.  In no way do I find fault with the talented students, staff, or faculty of these aforementioned schools. These 40...

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Application Status UPDATE

Nov. 3, 2010—You hit submit.  Whew.  Take a breather, you’ve earned it.  I understand that now you want to follow up and confirm we’ve received materials.  However, give us some time.  We have HUNDREDS of applications and pieces of applications pouring into our office every day.  It takes time to process all of that snail mail and...

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Not an Ivy in the South

Nov. 2, 2010—Vanderbilt is not an Ivy League in the South.  No, I’m not going to be one of those naïve jerks who tells you the Ivy League is just a sports conference.  I understand it means more than an athletic schedule.  Wikipedia (the authority on all things pop culture) says the Ivy League has a “connotation...

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Early Decision on the Mind

Oct. 26, 2010—Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop in Bloomington, Indiana spacing off and thinking about the small joys of life – I had my first John Cougar Mellencamp sighting!  I spent four years in Bloomington and it wasn’t until I came back several years after moving that I saw JCM milling about.  This was...

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Meet Sarah Quin

Oct. 25, 2010—I am the admissions counselor responsible for Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia & West Virginia. I work as the AmbassaDores coordinator in the office.

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