The Vandy Admissions Blog

Thom October 16th, 2009

The poet bard Avril Lavigne was whining a tune about being complicated as I turned in the rental car this morning.  It is rare that I 1) make a habit of tuning in stations that would play Avril’s songs and 2) think much about said songs when I do.  It was that 5 minute gap between disconnecting the mp3 player and ditching the rented Prius.  I’m sitting there waiting for the attendant to check my mileage and thinking about a curious series of questions I fielded this past week:

1. “I’m not sure what I want to major in, will that hurt me in the admissions process?” (answer = no)
2.  ”I could ask my company to defer some of my compensation, should I do that to better my chances of obtaining financial aid?” (answer = no, what will you do, defer it for four years?)
3. “I’m a sophomore, and my family’s worried that they can’t afford to send me abroad this summer, but I heard that colleges really like that, what should I do?” (answer = have a great experience doing something else you’ll enjoy and let colleges sort it out)

It’s true, Vanderbilt’s applications have grown (+73% in five years).  A natural reaction is to try and find some way to stand out in the crowd.  But for us, at the heart of the holistic review is an understanding of you - your past accomplishments, what you care about, and what drives your curiosities.  In each of these things - simplicity is a supreme virtue.  Consider the following example:

Ask yourself the question “Do I need a pan flute?”  Use the following chart to answer the question.  

Source: toothpastefordinner.com

Print this and put it above the space you use to work on your applications.  The flow chart is good - the flow chart is wise - the flow chart is simple.

Simplicity in your extracurriculars: spell it out

• No acronyms - OK, we think we know what the BFF club is, but go ahead and humor us.
• The reason we like the Common App’s extracurricular section is because it limits you to a certain number of activities.  Listing your most influential activities there is expected (again, simple I know, but you’d be surprised how many times we learn about that officer position at Girl’s State from the guidance counselor, not from the student).
• A resume is fine, but not expected.  You can include one if you would like to list more activities than the Common App will allow.

Simplicity in you essay: get to the point

• True, there is no desired length, but please, no long walks in the desert.
• Your essay doesn’t have to be a novel topic, or oddly formatted to stick out.  Some of the best essays I’ve read have been about the family pet, or a favorite room in the house, but they were expertly written.

 Simplicity in your letters of recommendation: no surprises

• Don’t default to the teachers in whose classes you received the best grade.  Instead, pick the teachers who know your work ethic and your classroom personality the best.
• Make sure you feel reasonably sure what your recommenders will write about you.  I always scratch my head when I read luke warm recommendations.  “How did the student misjudge that one?” I ask.

• Application Process , Common App , File Reading Explained , Scholarships and Financial Aid , Study Abroad , The College Essay
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Abby January 29th, 2009

Now that Early Decision 2 is almost done, we’re settling in for the bulk of our “reading season.”  This is when we spend every waking moment either, a) reading applications, or b) feeling guilty for not reading applications at that moment.  My job turns into a 7-day-a-week undertaking that includes many long evenings, less time to spend with my friends, and many, many manila folders.  The strange thing is that I like this part of my job best.

I’m going to let you in on a secret about admissions officers.  Very few admissions officers would talk about this with students, and we rarely even talk about it with each other.  The secret is that there are two types of admissions officers, “reading people” and “travel people.”  In-office duties, program planning, publications, and everything else aside, the two main duties of most admissions officers are recruitment travel and file reading.  Nearly all of us do both of these things, and there is enjoyment to be found in each.  But deep down, most of us would admit that we prefer one over the other.

I am a reading person.  There, I’ve said it, it’s out in the open now.  Some of this comes from the fact that I’m a homebody.  Sure, I enjoy the travel of my job because it’s fun and exciting to see different parts of the country and meet the students and counselors in those areas.  But I miss my own bed and my own kitchen and my cat and the comfort of being at home.  So when it’s time for travel season to end and reading season to begin, I’m ready.

More than just a preference for home, though, I find the evaluation of applications to be truly fascinating work.  Each one of those manila folders that I see is a new person and a new story.  Each part of the application is a piece of a puzzle, so my duty is to put those pieces together into as much of a person as I can glean from pieces of paper.  Hopefully, the things that the student tells me mesh with the things that the counselor and teachers tell me and I emerge with a sense of who this student is.  This is why it is so important for students to explain themselves as fully as possible in the application.  You don’t want to have to hope that your counselor mentioned that book award that you got junior year and explain what it means – that’s your job!  Most students do a great job of this and so I’m able to build a solid picture of the student behind each application.

I also enjoy using other sources to fill out this picture that I’ve developed.  We read applications based on geographic territories, so I get to know the schools in my territories.  Sometimes I can even figure out the social circles in these areas!  I’ve read an essay from a student that mentions his or her friends, only to then read essays from the friends that mention the first student.  I had two files from one high school this year in which the counselor said of the first student that everyone was surprised he wasn’t elected Student Body President.  The second file was from the “surprise” Student Body President!  There are also times when a student is applying from a school that I don’t know, or even a town that I don’t recognize.  In this instance, I’ll read the profile that the school provides (ask you guidance office about it) to build as much context as possible around the student.  This is also why I keep a map nearby when I read, so that I can add another layer of perspective by seeing where this student is from.  I am sometimes amazed by the distant corners of the country from which students apply to Vanderbilt!  It is genuinely interesting to put these pieces together and understand the person behind the paper.

Ultimately, this reading process is a long one, but one that constantly intrigues me.  I was a sociology major in college so I am always curious about people (see, now you are building a picture of who I am!)  That’s what makes these manila folders so interesting – they represent people.  I know that it can feel like you are sending your application off into an abyss and you wonder if anyone is reading it or paying attention to all the effort that you put in it.  The answer is yes, we read your application.  We want to hear what you have to say, we catch your humor (like the student who listed his ethnicity as “New Englander”) and we want to know all the relevant information that we can about you before we render our decision.  Even travel people would agree with me on that.

• Application Process , File Reading Explained , The College Essay
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Thom November 18th, 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 cars, the low drone of the play-by-play, maybe the heat starting to kick on as Nashville weather had just started to chill, mostly blissful silence. 

Now, it’s the low and persistent whisper from the dining room, a tugging reminder each time past the room with stacks of my “manila friends” as a former VU Dean of Admissions used to put it - “psst . . . hey, hey . . . want to hear about my mission trip?   How about an essay debating the moderating effect of Ultimate Frisbee playing on global interdependence?”  Don’t misread me, I truly enjoy the new cycle of files - we’re knee deep into ED I right now - it’s this very cycle that has made this job my home professionally.  As soon as you get tired on being on the road visiting high schools and recruiting, you get to be home, reading the applications of the students you recruited.

However, sitting on my couch two weekends ago, my mind flashing forward to Sundays filled with reading applications (like it was yesterday) rendered the choice to kill the tube, pick up a sweater and a football and head outside to try (in vain) to teach my boy to catch, an effortless one.  This work is important to me, it encompasses so much of what I believe in - education as a key to self-improvement, access and equity as a right in a democratic society, lifelong learning and discovery- however this work is not all-encompassing.  There is yet time for some front yard football.

I hope that as Thanksgiving nears, the important work you are doing in wrapping up your applications still allows you time for family, some late afternoon sun, and perhaps a football too.

• Advice for Parents , Application Process , Balance , Early Decision , File Reading Explained , Preparing for College , The College Essay
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Thom September 12th, 2008

We talked yesterday about the importance of voice in your college application essay.   Today let’s discuss the second insight your college application gives our admission officers, specifically, how you put your thoughts together to convey a point.

In college a buddy of mine introduced me to a friend of his at a party like this, “Hey man, I want you to meet Thom.  [motioning to me and continuing to his friend]  He’s like really funny.”  After the cordialities and and “nice to meet you’s” it was, well, awkward.  The yoke of funny was unexpected and darn heavy.  Trying to tell us you’re a leader (for example) in a college essay, versus showing us, is a lot like that.

There is a truism in life that in our haste, we’d rather tell others something than have to show others something.  You may well be a leader, but just like your calc teacher, we’re going to ask that you show your work.  In the essay, this means paying particular attention to the details of how you write.  Beyond the basics covered yesterday (grammar and diction) the order and organization of your essay, the words you choose, and the depth of your description of your topic all speak to how you make sense of the world around you.

Here are a couple of real examples, with my general take-a-ways from reading it: 

• “During that [mission] trip [to Kenya] I was struck by how the villagers went about their days in such happiness even though they had very little.”  -This is a common sentiment, intended to contrast cultures and depict the perception that people of greater means have more troubles while those with less means lead simpler lives.  However, it conveys an overly simplistic worldview, and makes me worry about the commitment that individual has to deeply understanding social and human conditions.
• “I describe myself as an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinker.”  -A kind of oxymoron if you think about it, in that the phrase is a very common cliché, and challenges how out-of-the-box the writer really is.  Being an unconventional thinker is more clearly conveyed by unique descriptions and word choice.
• “Reflecting back on it, winning that [big] game for our team changed me in immeasurable ways.”  -A fine sentiment so long as the next sentence ushers in a reflection on how that event changed you.  It’s not enough to recount an event and just say that it changed you, let us in on your introspection on that event.  It conveys your values and what you find important in life (i.e., saying that “it changed you because you experienced for the first time the inter-dependence of a true team environment” conveys that your worldview includes those around you, not just you).

The reason your AP English teacher tells you to write succinctly is because the practice of doing so forces your mind to first focus on an argument, and then support that argument with relevant evidence, the true mark of an educated mind.  The reason we ask you to do that in your college essay is to show us the culmination of this practice.  We’re looking to understand how you think, how you engage concepts and ideas as a projection of your fit with our intellectual community (i.e., our classes, Commons houses, etc).

It goes beyond the OCD (see yesterday’s post) gimmicks like having a “hook” or some odd essay format (like a second person account of a conversation between the applicant and God - a topic listed as “can’t miss” in one of those guidebooks at the mega-bookstore).  Clear message, well thought out voice, and solid writing and editing.  Simple right?

• Admissions Committee , Advice for Parents , Application Process , College Application Guides , File Reading Explained , The College Essay
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Thom September 11th, 2008

My two year old son likes to ask me to tell him stories right before bedtime.  I weakly protest but ultimately acquiesce in the effort to get him off to dreamland.  Quite candidly though, I suck at it.  He is a tough, but forgiving audience, mostly finding a matchbox car more entertaining after about two lines in to the tale.  Once I became so bored with my own story that I began plagiarizing the plotline of The Wizard of Oz, passing it off as my own.  Don’t judge me, okay?  You try and concoct a story that will keep a toddler’s attention.  Oh the great divine irony then that I work in a field that demands that students tell us a story about their lives in the form of the application essay, and then passes judgment on the merits of that story.  I just hope we have a slightly better attention span than a two year old. 

The application essay is perhaps the most common grist for the anxiety mill that is the application process at highly selective colleges.  I get why it’s a little daunting to applicants.  It’s a task which is nearly completely in your control, including the overall direction of the content, and most importantly, the decision of when that task is successfully completed.  At some point, your grades are on paper in the transcript, the standardized tests are taken, and there you are, staring at the rhythmic blinking cursor on the screen, almost like it’s a tapping foot.

What I don’t get is the cottage industry of “experts” who crank out guides to writing said admissions essays that “can’t miss.”  So in the effort to do research (and get out of the office for an hour) I have taken a pilgrimage to the local mega-bookstore to seek the collective wisdom of the great Oracle of College Decisions (for short, we shall call it OCD) on the admissions essay.  Here’s what I learned:

• You must package yourself in every way, “just being yourself” and “just being honest” isn’t enough.  One “expert” even lists these as “fatal errors” in the essay writing process based apparently on one student’s experience of writing an essay on her honest assessment that her effort level in her high school studies was lower than it could have been, as her academics seemed to come naturally to her.  She had to *gasp* “settle for her 4^th choice school.”
• If you are a graduate of a highly selective university you apparently can write books about how to get into those colleges.  Nevermind that this logic is akin to me saying that I can be a real estate agent because I applied for and got a mortgage.
• Under no circumstance should you write an essay that someone else could have written.  Since the number of students applying to college is nearly 2,000,000, each applying to an average of 6 colleges each, your essay must then be one out of 12,000,000 in its uniqueness.  Yeah, that’s reasonable.
• The café chairs in mega-bookstores are really uncomfortable.

The essay is a chance for you to speak directly to the individuals reading your application.  It’s not moderated through someone else (like a guidance counselor or teacher letter of recommendation or the SAT or ACT companies), it’s just you.  In the college application essay, we are trying to assess two major things (one that I will address today, and one that I will address tomorrow):

1.       an understanding of your voice, and

2.       an evaluation of how your mind pieces together thoughts and concepts

The science of writing an essay is no different than what you’re taught in your English composition classes:

• A clear, coherent message/thesis that is consistent throughout the essay
• Great proofing and grammar, and please go beyond spell-check which will not catch that you “did the loin share of the work on the lab project”  
• Use examples and imagery rather than simply stating things (show me, rather than tell me) – more on this tomorrow
• Answer the question (seems simple, but you’d be surprised)
• Use precise word descriptions

The art of writing the essay is found in the voice.  I know you’re reading this now and perhaps rolling your eyes at the very ethereal notion of “hearing your voice,” but stick with me here.  Your essay, and the topic can be ordinary, oddball, simple, or complex, so long as it is genuinely you, it tends to work.  The reality though, is that we all have multiple voices.  Put another way, we all have various wonderful facets of ourselves, be it a thinker, a leader, a friend, etc.  So which one should you accentuate in your college essay? 

To answer this, humor me with a quick exercise on a scrap piece of paper.  First, write your name using your dominant hand.  Easy enough right?  Now write your name with your non-dominant hand.  A lot harder right?  Took longer?  Looks pretty bad too, huh?  Trying to write an essay in which you are trying to package yourself for some unknown admissions officer is no different than trying to sign your name with your opposite-hand.  It’s going to take forever and the product of your labor isn’t going to look all that familiar to you.  I don’t care what the OCD tells you.

If you’re a naturally funny person, that should come out in your essay.  If you’re known by your buddies as being introspective, always thinking about tiny, sometimes odd details, consider letting that voice come through.  Try this test to see if your essay clearly aligns with your voice.  Take your essay and remove your name, or any obvious self-identifying elements within it, and put it in front of 10 people who know you best.  They should be able to identify you as the author by its contents.  The college admissions essay should amplify your most natural, and thus strongest voice, not mimic someone else’s.

Tomorrow I will tackle the second dynamic we gleam from a college application essay: how you piece your thoughts together.

• Application Process , College Application Guides , File Reading Explained , The College Essay
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