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Admissions deadlines for Admissions Officers
Feb. 16, 2009—You think you're the only one that gets stressed meeting admissions deadlines? Our officers are reading their eyeballs out right now, pouring over applications trying to meet our own internal priority deadlines. In our office, we set goals as to when all applications should be first read, second read, and decisioned (more on this term and a minute), etc. One such priority deadline is coming up this week.
MOSAIC 2009 Invites Nearly Out the Door
Feb. 13, 2009—Later today our office will be mailing invitations for MOSAIC 2009. This program is geared to highlite the vast diversity of Vanderbilt (One of the nation's most diverse and inclusive leading University according to a recent survey from the Journal of Blacks and Higher Education) for newly admitted students of color for the incoming class of 2009.
Stupid Things Admissions People Say
Jan. 27, 2009—From time to time I'm asked to serve as a panelist for high schools hosting "junior nights." These are opportunities for students and their parents to come out and hear from college "experts." They're usually fun affairs for us, as we get to put down your employer's banner for a little bit, field questions and get a pulse for what's on people's minds. Not too long ago, I sat on one in Chicago and something happened there that has had me thinking for about a while now about the state of the whole admissions field and where our profession has gone wrong.
Super Mega Hella-Blizzard 2009
Jan. 20, 2009—A blizzard of another kind is winding down at 2305 West End Ave at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. During the height of the days surrounding our January 3rd application deadline, our operations staff was handling an avalanche of mail. On January 5th we received 30 bins of mail. That following week, each day brought an additional 10 bins of materials to our office.
Admitted at ED?: advice for approaching the rest of your senior year
Jan. 16, 2009—All admitted students to Vanderbilt will be asked to submit a final transcript once it comes available and it never fails that we see a very small handful of students who packed up the intellectual circus a little early that last semester. At that point our office has a decision to make, and it is a no-one-size-fits-all determination. My general advice is succinct, if not completely predictable, don't risk it.
Of Prom Dates and "Demonstrated" Interest
Jan. 14, 2009—Don’t judge me but I love Family Guy. I’m not like overly zealous Simpsons-guy or anything like that, I mean I don’t own any of the DVD’s (although I do have all seasons of Entourage and Arrested Development). Peter Griffin has a short stint on the local news doing stand-in op-ed pieces called “What Really Grinds My Gears” which involved nonsensical rants about lindsay Lohan and Starwars. Demonstrated interest, in its current incantation in college admissons, is one of mine.
What's in a name? – post-ED1 musings
Dec. 19, 2008—Q&A Time: Q – How do I check the completeness of my application (i.e., do you have my stuff)? A – Call 800-288-0432 between 8am-5pm CST or email us at admissions@vanderbilt.edu. We started running double shifts with our processing staff a couple weeks ago to be able to handle the mountain of paper (remember last...
ED 1 Letters for Class of 2013 are in the Mail
Dec. 13, 2008—Happy December, The Early Decision letters have officially left 2305 West End Avenue as of noon today. I speak for our whole office when I say that this was a very impressive pool both academically and personally. Overall, the ED 1 pool was larger (albeit slightly) than in years past and while we were excited to see...
And Then There Were Files: ED I and Front Yard Football
Nov. 18, 2008—It was a moment a couple Sundays ago. On the couch, my 2.5 year old playing quietly on the floor in front of me, the Titans game on in front of him. Nothing too remarkable about the exact moment really when I realized this would be last weekend without file reading. The clicking of Matchbox...
Vandy Admissions Deadlines: Your to-do list for this weekend
Oct. 31, 2008—There’s a great line from an Arrested Development episode, spoken as a teaser by a TV news anchor, “Packs of wolves loose on the streets of Orange County – we’ll tell you what it means for your weekend when we come back.” Just thought of it when I was writing the title for this post. ...
Commons is to Hogwarts what Sociology is to "Muggle Studies"
Oct. 17, 2008—Great article out yesterday in Time Magazine about VU’s Freshman Commons. A Frosh New Start Taking my son to a quidditch match this weekend. Should be bloody brilliant.
The ED & Financial Aid Quandary
Oct. 16, 2008—We got a really good question about Early Decision & fin aid from Talha and I thought I would answer it here instead of replying over email. “Hey bloggers, I was wondering wheather (sic) applying early decision to Vander-awsome-bilt would affect at all the financial need of a student/family. I know that once you are accepted...