‘Application Process’
Writing a Personal Statement
Sep. 13, 2010—Last year I was responsible for approximately 1,000 applications. Numerically, far too many of my students look identical. It’s the intangible pieces: essay, letters of recommendation, and extracurriculars that set one student apart from another. The essay is my personal favorite. I love a good story. I know, though, that this can be a stressful...
Theme Words
Sep. 9, 2010—I hear about colleges all day long. It’s (obviously) what I do for a living. I know from my own college search experiences and my day-to-day job that many institutions begin to blend together and sound exactly alike. Students and families seek to understand what’s different about Vanderbilt. How does Vanderbilt set itself apart from...
College Rankings: Everybody is an Expert
Aug. 30, 2010—Last night I thought it would be a rather clever time for me to write my Monday blog about college rankings. Today I woke up and everybody is writing their Monday blog about college rankings! My Twitter feed is overwhelmed with opinions on the topic and all the major newspapers have an angle on the...
On the Road
Aug. 16, 2010—This week marks my first official recruitment trip of the Fall 2011 admissions cycle! Thom and I are Road Show buddies for the week and we will be visiting Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis. What exactly is the Road Show about? Essentially, it’s us bringing Vanderbilt to you. At these events we host an information...
Summertime at OUA
Jun. 29, 2010—People I meet throughout life often believe my job is on a 10-month contract with summers off work. Contrary to belief, however, there is a great deal of behind-the-scenes work to be done in the summer months and I am here at OUA year-round. So what exactly do admission counselors do when they’re not traveling...
Waitlist Admit Offers Start Today
May. 5, 2010—For much of the day yesterday, my colleagues and I reviewed the status of our deposits and the good news is that we are right where we wanted to be at this point. As I've mentioned before, it was always our intention to go to our waitlist at some point and I can now tell you that we will start contacting students as early as this morning.
Part III – Tips For Applying to College
Mar. 8, 2010—This is part III of a three part series entitled The Dos and Don’ts of Applying to College. In the first two entries I covered the Dos and the Don’ts for the college search process. In six months time you will finally be applying to colleges, so when that time comes here a few final thoughts...
Reading, Reading, Reading
Jan. 21, 2010—At this time of the year the life of an admissions officer means one thing: reading applications. Here at Vanderbilt we are inundated with applications and luckily a few days a week I will read applications at home or on campus. Today I am reading in my favorite (and only) reading spot on campus: the...
Gatekeepers
Nov. 18, 2009—When I was a high school student visiting colleges and universities I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was a first generation college student and just the idea of going to college was both overwhelming and exciting. During a visit to Indiana University (which I eventually attended for...
New OUA Website = One-Click Connect to Vandyland
Nov. 11, 2009—Today we debuted our newly structured and redesigned website to our prospective students families and high school partners. Features of the new site a streamlined and dramaticall simplified structure where all of the admissions/financial aid/Vanderbilt information you've asked for is one click away including a "find your major" drop down. No more having to crawl through dozens of websites just to find your major.
Waitlist Released: VU 2013 Class Full
Jul. 15, 2009—Later today we will be emailing official word that we are releasing our waitlist for the Vanderbilt class of 2013. If you have been following along, you know that we haven't made any offers to the list since late May. We had been waiting to release the waitlist just in case we needed to make more offers. Like most things in highly selective admissions, on one hand it is exciting that that we're one step closer to the next incoming class starting at Vandy, on the other, I also know that this comes as a disappointment for those of you that were still out there waiting.
Common App Available for VU Class of 2014
Jul. 2, 2009—All is still quiet on the waitlist front, and I have no news there. The waitlist is still open and active. We have officially closed all transfer admissions however for the Fall. Today we'll be sending out the following email to all rising seniors on our mailing list announcing start of a new admissions cycle.