The Vandy Admissions Blog

Thom November 24th, 2009

You know how people talk about made up Hallmark holidays?  You know like Sweetest Day or Talk Like a Pirate Day, and who can forget the parades during NoSHAVEmber (i.e., national beard month).  If this admissions thing doesn’t pan out and I become Chief Holiday Maker and Thanksgiving doesn’t already exist in said parallel universe, that will be my first act on the job.  An autumn day devoted to hanging out with family, eating, and football.  Perfection defined.

If you’re a college applying senior though the gathering of uncle Sid and aunt Colleen over the holiday means one thing, you better have an answer for those inevitable two questions you’ll be getting:  “Where do you want to go to school next year?”  and “What do you want to major in?”  My advice: make something up and make it awkwardly funny, if for no one else but for you.  Things like “I plan to attend carnie school to learn the ancient art of weight guessing.”  Or “Currently I’m searching for a school with a very lenient dorm pet policy as I have recently taken to indoor alpaca herding.”

In Vandy OUA, we have a security policy that an applicant’s file cannot leave the greater Nashville area (no taking files on the road, etc).  A nice by-product of this policy is some mandated down-time over the Thanksgiving break since most of our staff fan out across the country for some homemade pumpkin pie.  The Vandy students are already gone for break as Dean Wcislo mentioned but the University officially closes on Thursday and Friday.  When we all return, we will have one more week of reading before ED I admissions committee starts a week from this Friday.

By the way, today is Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day.  Thanks Hallmark, you’re the awesomeist.

New Voices on the Admissions Blog

As you have already noticed, we’ve added some additional perspectives to the blog.  Kylie’s made her first post - you’ll be hearing more from her as the year goes on.  Plus, we’ll be having many more guest blogs from across the University.  If there is a topic or a particular person you’d like to hear from, post a comment or send us an email.

• Admissions Committee , Early Decision
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Thom March 19th, 2009

There are things in this world that are perceived to be more fascinating than they really are: haggis, turkey bowling, Dancing with the Stars, that game where you spin around on a bat 10 times and wobble toward the finish line - oh, and admissions committees.  For the past two weeks I, along with my fellow Associate Director and Director of Admissions at Vanderbilt, have reviewed the decisions of hundreds of individual students all across the country.  Think of a meeting that lasts 80+ hours long.  Yes, it is that fascinating.

Here’s how it works:

• Each officer brings in a bundle of applications, which at this point have been first read and second read.  Nearly all of them have already been “decisioned” (as we’ve talked before on this blog) and the officer is proposing a decision change.
• In the picture above you see a laptop connected to a monitor.  It displays all 19,300 applications we have received this year, broken out by high school (all 928 pages of them).  It is useful as we progress through each region to view a student presented in committee in the broader context of his or her high school.  The computer is also clutch for hunting down mundane yet (in the moment) pressing matters such as checking the lyrics to Billy Joel’s Allentown in between Eastern PA apps.   Or “How do you pronounce Nacogdoches (TX) and how is it different than Natchitoches (LA)?”   By the way, it’s Knack-a-Doe-Shuss and Knack-a-Tesh respectively.  Ahh Google.
• When there is an individual applicant that needs discussing, the officer presenting in committee will place a summary sheet of that applicant’s grades, test scores (and a ton more)  in the middle of the committee table and begins describing the applicant.  The officer keeps the rest of the file (as you see in the picture) drawing out snippets of the essay, the eca’s, the recs, etc.
• Most of our conversations center along the faultlines between an admit and a waitlist, although we sometimes discuss when it would be best to waitlist a student or simply let them go.  We do not want to be placing students on a waitlist who would never stand a chance of coming off of it.  After the conversation/debate ensues, a decision is rendered.

Today is the final day of committee and decision checking started yesterday.  Decision checking is where we check each file to make sure the decision is recorded in our system correctly.  Letter checking then takes place to make sure that Tim from Toledo doesn’t get Tina from Tacoma’s decision letter.  If all goes like we think it will, letters will be in the mail a week from today.  Stay tuned.

• Admissions Committee , File Reading Explained , Waitlist
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Thom February 26th, 2009

Seriously, stop it.  Not to go all Billy Gates on you, but there’s this little squared red X in the top right corner of your computer screen and I’m begging you to punch it in the face.   Unless you’re a transfer student, all your applications are in, and unless you’re an early decision applicant and have already heard our decision, all you can do now is wait for us to make up our minds and mail you a letter.  We’ll be shipping those around April 1, so there’s this space between now and then that nothing new is going to happen.  So step away for a while and save yourself for the whirlwind of April when all the cards will be on the table, and us college folks will have to wait for your decision.

Sam Snead, the legendary golfer said, “To be consistently effective, you must put a certain distance between yourself and what happens to you on the golf course. This is not indifference, it’s detachment.”  What he’s getting at is that in an endeavor of difficulty where many things will go right, but many others will go wrong, the central actor must remain calm, untroubled, above it all, as if separate from the toils.  It’s not a break with caring, as Snead points out, it’s a form of personal resiliency from the stress and struggle.  I will at this point stop channeling my inner Bagger Vance.

Why am I writing this to you?  Isn’t this space just supposed to be used for updates on our admissions process?  Sure, it’s that.  However, I feel responsible to use this platform to 1) nudge our conversations beyond file reading or getting in to Vanderbilt (or wherever), and 2) embolden you to view your college search experience as a springboard for future big decisions in your life.  Today’s petition:  be active, be engaged, really own it, but have an off switch.

According to Google, more than a thousand people read our blog on a weekly basis.  We’re humbled by this.  But next week, we would love to see a number half that.  Get away from the college application process folks.  For a day, for a week.  We’ll leave the light on for you when you get back.  Plus, it’s all archived, so it’s not going anywhere.  Get diverted.  Go for a drive, read something for fun and not just in your Google Reader - preferably something with pages, download Yakety Sax to your iPod and just try not to smile, rent Con Air on DVD and remark at how John Malkovich’s career literally disintegrates in front of your eyes with each passing scene, grab a friend on that first day that feels like Spring when everyone is charged to finally be out of doors, and just detach for a little while.  It’s called spring break for a reason. It starts with that little red X up there.

• Admissions Committee , Advice for Parents , Balance , College Confidential
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Brad February 24th, 2009

Nashville has plenty of culinary choices. But there is one type of food which is distinctive to Music City: Hot Chicken.

Hot Chicken is southern-style pan-fried chicken cooked in a cast-iron skillet. There is, however, one twist. The chicken is breaded in a super-secret blend of spices which give the chicken its…hot. And trust me, it is spicy. Dangerous even.

The main purveyor of this delight is called Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. Former Mayor Bill Purcell declared it his favorite restaurant and legend has it that one could garner political favor by stepping up from the milder varieties. The truth is, that I frequently crave Prince’s. Eating it on Tuesday can guarantee that you’ll want it on Wednesday. Fortunately for me, I am eating Prince’s tomorrow. After all it’s a Data Day tradition.

So what are data days? Well, you’re about to find out. Because as much as I’d like to use this blog to promote Hot Chicken, it’s really not the point.

Data Days are the days where we evaluate the overall depth, quality and diversity of our applicant pool just before starting admissions committee.  There are three per year, one for each of the Early Decision rounds, and one for Regular Decision. Thom alluded earlier to the admission officer deadline by which all applications must be first and second read. That date was last Wednesday. Since then, our support staff have been frantically entering decisions (admit, deny, waitlist, or committee)  into our database so we can have a complete look at the pool by Data Day.

Then, using some fancy schmancy reporting tools (we actually use Business Objects, a French data solutions package) the admissions committee will answer some critical questions:

How many students should be admitted?

This number is calculated by taking the number of spots in the first year class and subtracting the total number already admitted during Early Decision. Then, using a yield projection for Regular Decision we multiply to account for students who are admitted but will not choose to attend. From this number we subtract the regular decision students who have already been admitted or will be shortly. The only students in this group are MOSAIC invitees, Scholarship Finalists (Ingram, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Chancellor’s) and recruited athletes.

The final number will be the total number of admissions letters that leave our office on mailing day. You can try to guess the number, but we do not release it publicly. Remember that we keep it intentionally low  to prevent over enrollment. Then we admit from the waiting list to ensure the porridge is just right.

2. How many students can be heard at committee?

An easy calculation. We average about 10 application discussions in a committee hour. With three committees running 6-8 hours every day, five or six days each week  for the next month. According to Amy, our committee guru, we have 330 hours scheduled but may need more or less depending on the answer to the next question.

3. What is the threshold by which any student should gain admission?

Ideally any application that reaches committee will include a compelling discussion and the full spectrum of decision options. Although we love hearing about the incredible, bizarre, hilarious and remarkable things that prospective Vanderbilt students accomplish, it is not useful to spend more time on students who are clearly admissible.

On Data Days we take a statistical snapshot (compiled from the espresso-fueled months of reading) and assume that we can admit most qualified applicants in the highest end of our pool. This process is known in our office as “Commando.”  The origins of the term are hazy, but if I had my guess it dates back to 1645 when Alan Commando, the former Dean of Oxford decided to admit everyone at once. A carnival was subsequently thrown in his honor.

At the conclusion of Data Days, the entire staff receives an email with “Commando Guidelines.” Any applicant who meets the guidelines is gathered, re-read and barring any concerns, summarily admitted. Remember that every last application has been reviewed in full (twice in fact), received hand-written comments, and a decision recommendation. 

The remaining applications are slated for committee review where we will spend the coming weeks discussing everything from extra curricular involvement to grades to curriculum to that essay describing that time you fell offstage at your piano recital.

To a geek like me, Data Days are like Magic Eye posters. For months I’ve closely examined the applicants from Maryland (except Montgomery and Prince George’s counties), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Now I am able to inch backward and see how those students fit into the larger group considered for Fall 2009.  Now it’s time for some Hot Chicken.

Mmm...Hot Chicken

• Admissions Committee , Application Process , File Reading Explained , Uncategorized
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Thom February 16th, 2009

Student workers sorting files before regular decision committee. (And yes, that is a signed picture of Chuck Norris in the background - You want to make something of it?)

Think you’re the only one that gets stressed meeting admissions deadlines?  Our officers are reading their eyeballs out right now, poring 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.  You know how I can tell?  Two things: the accumulation of pizza boxes in the breakroom trash (from after hours dinner breaks from reading) and the copious coffee drinking in the AM from those late night reading sessions.  The reason for these deadlines, what we refer to internally as “pushes,” is so that we can be as informed about the total pool of candidates for each decision round (ED1, ED2, and Regular) before we begin committee.  Vanderbilt has a much bigger Admissions staff than many other schools like us (23 officers that read files), and our officers read considerably less files per officer than many of our peers (sometimes by as much as half).   These elements are by design, as they are intended to increase the depth of our reviews.  However, even with these efforts in place, under the premises of a Gregorian calendar, where time is arithmetically measured and finite, we have to channel our resources to get these letters out the door on time.  At a very high level, our process is built to direct more of these resources (i.e., reading/committee time) to the students who need it most, that being students in the muddy middle of our pool.  

If our applicant pool is a bell curve where there is a small number of students at the very top (the wicked smaaart for you New Englanders & Good Will Hunting fans)  and the very bottom, the majority will fall in the middle, which for Vanderbilt is still is pretty bright, but I digress.  There is a whole group of applicants who on the surface look alike (testing, gpa, class rigor, etc) for whom we spend more time in reviewing their unique qualities (found in their leadership, writing, recs, etc).  Every student who applies to Vanderbilt has their file reviewed (yes, even the non-numeric stuff) by an admissions officer, even the applicant who is clearly not competitive.  But we do reserve our committee time to discussing the students in the middle of our pool. 

To get through all 19,000+ apps, we have to start early.  Which means we may have already read your app some two months ago and it is currently in a “decisioned” status right now.  That means that in our internal system, your application may be flagged as a “hold,” an “admit” or a “deny.”  In a lot of ways, the term “decisioned” is a misnomer.  These are NOT permanent statuses, as they can and routinely do change.  We often relook at these decisions once the pool completes, and we look at new information that arrives from you.  Your officer may have read your file in December, and then you sent in something new, the officer will catch that and look at it to see if this new information changes anything.  This is the primary benefit of a pooled admissions evaluation process (such as what Vanderbilt has), where we try and contextualize each application in the totality of the pool, rather than rolling admissions processes that maintain established admit guidelines (even if only known internally) that adjust as more of the pool becomes known.

Now back to reading.

• Admissions Committee , Application Process , Early Decision , Standardized Testing
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