The Vandy Admissions Blog

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 6th, 2009

Hello Vandy Admissions Blog Readers,

The allegations are true. Early Decision II letters are in the mail. We are in the process of compiling the statistical data and will release the information in the coming days.

Best of luck to all applicants and congratulations to all new Commodores.

• Application Process , College Application Guides , College Confidential , Uncategorized
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Thom January 14th, 2009

Don’t judge me but I love Family Guy. I’m not like “overzealous Simpsons-guy” or anything like that, 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 Star Wars. Demonstrated interest, in its current incantation in college admissons, is one of mine.

Demonstrated interest as a concept is not inherently pernicious. In fact, we all use the construct in everyday life. A measurement of demonstrated interest comes in handy when you’re: 1) making small talk in an elevator (arms folded, looking at the front right corner = “I didn’t see the game last night and I wouldn’t admit to it if I did”) 2) merging in traffic (to make eye contact or not to make eye contact) or 3) asking someone to the prom (more on this in a minute).

As it exists in college admissions, demonstrated interest can be applied as simply as having a “Why us?” essay, or as complex as a contact tracking system, where every phone call, email, and personal interaction is noted and accumulates to a greater interest score. The greater the score, the greater the love. I suppose the logic goes that there are only a small number of admissions slots available and you want to be pretty certain that the offers you extend have a higher likelihood of acceptance.  To cast it in a more personal light: in my junior year of high school, I asked three people to the prom before the fourth person said yes. I asked people who I thought were cool, attractive, low maintenance, fun, and who generally met my “good prom date” threshold. In retrospect, I apparently did not consider “demonstrated interest” enough as my prom date yield was a pathetic 25%.

In a recent post on VU’s College Confidential message board a poster vented about the concept of demonstrated interest, arguing that it adds another layer of complexity to an already confusing process at best and overly advantages individuals with the financial means of visiting colleges at worst. So in addition to being introspective but social, funny but humble, a capable leader and occasional follower, you also have to make sure that College X knows how pumped you are about their genetics program.

I will admit that the systematic application of demonstrated interest, and the resulting game playing I believe it reinforces in college admissions, is a frustation of mine. In my opinion, it “puts the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle.” The accumulation of contact points to build demonstrated interest versus better communicating your more enduring intellectual interests (politics, science, the arts, etc) is akin to playing Guitar Hero over rocking an actual guitar - you know, the one with strings? One’s a game where you press the right buttons and get a ton of points and “win,” whereas the other actually makes you cooler. In other words, point based demonstrated interest seems to value how much you are interested in a college, when it should be the college’s job to learn how interesting you are.

Where is Vandy in all of this? While we do keep track of all contacts an applicant has with us, that does not aggregate into a score that is used in the admissions review. Visiting campus is encouraged, but only because we wholeheartedly believe it is the very best way to learn about Vandy, its professors, students, campus and about Nashville, not because it will give you a better chance of admission. Not visiting campus will not harm your chance of admission.

Post your thoughts in the comments section. Be well friends & hang in there, April is only 11 weeks away.

• Application Process , College Confidential , Demonstrated Interest , File Reading Explained , Nashville
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admin December 27th, 2007

My birth year says that I’m a member of Generation X. We were one of the first to embrace random bite-sized info. Early adopters of ADD. That and grungy plaid. And maybe a culture of ennui too . . . so like whatever.

Chance me

It is a guilty pleasure to log on to College Confidential and feel the glow of college admissions hype radiate from my computer screen. I’m not knocking it, I mean if colleges could be more upfront with what we all wanted, maybe CC wouldn’t be as popular or needed. Any high stakes process that emphasizes restriction of information will invite efforts to pull back the curtain, and the internet is the ultimate medium for it. Be careful though. Like any sugary guilty pleasure, too much, too often makes your head hurt. Plus, how do you know that “FanMan847″ really knows anything about your shot at getting admitted to Vandy. We’ll be here, trying to make what we do as transparent as possible.

How do you spell SAT?

The SAT and ACT writing score. What do we do with it? Not much. We collect it, to look at later, like people who collect beanie babies or stamps. At some point down the road it might be worth using for something. For now, we ask students who take the ACT to take the optional writing portion, and of course, the SAT has it as a required part. For admissions decisions, we lean more on testing sections that are at least old enough to drive (Math and Critical Reading).

Santa first, then AMC

This time of year brings a little ritual in my family. Going to the movies. Stealing away to a movie when you have a toddler does not just happen. It takes careful planning. We’ve arranged childcare and we’re going to see Charlie Wilson’s War. I’ll let you know how it goes.

That sound you hear? That’s my files piling up . . .

We have a policy in our office that an application cannot leave the metropolitan Nashville area, and should never be taken to a public place. It’s a security measure to protect the highly sensitive information contained in them (which we take VERY seriously). Over the holidays I had a chance to get away from campus for a little while, which provided a wonderful opportunity to take a break. I love reading Chicago students, they’re truly amazing . . . but I was excited to be able to recharge a little, and leave the files to pile up back home for a bit. It’s a wonderful side effect of our policy. If you get a chance, once you’ve hit submit on those applications (our Regular and EDII deadline is Jan 3), try to breathe, take a look around a little. It is a beautiful time of year really, even with the grey skies. You’ve earned a break, take it.

• Application Process , College Confidential , File Reading Explained , Standardized Testing
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