Another week on the road

My favorite trip of the year is around the corner. I'm headed to northern Virginia.

I've heard that some schools send rookie admission officers to NOVA as an initiation because of the notorious traffic and the advanced questions that get asked "up there". I personally love my time in northern Virginia. I enjoy being asked questions about topics that are far more interesting than SAT scores and deadlines. Hearing the current rumors that are getting passed around is interesting, too.

I'm going to post my schedule. Please understand that this year is a bit of a logistical challenge. Two of us used to split northern Virginia and each spend a week visiting schools. This year, I am trying to cover the entire region in one week. There is no way I can get to even half of the schools in Loudoun, Fairfax, Arlington, and the cities. The schools I'm visiting are just the ones I was able to fit into my schedule. I wish I could get to every school.

These appointments are for students who attend each of the schools below. Follow the procedure established by your Career Center if I'm visiting your school to make sure you have permission to attend.

Monday, October 26
8:30 AM Washington-Lee High School
10:05 AM Wakefield High School
11:45 AM TJHSST
1:30 PM Edison High School

Tuesday, October 27
7:25 AM WT Woodson High School
8:54 AM Fairfax High School
11:00 AM Robinson Secondary
12:45 PM Lake Braddock High School

Wednesday, October 28
9:00 AM South Lakes High School
11:00 AM Langley High School
12:00 PM Yorktown High School
1:15 PM McLean High School
7:00 PM STEM Program @ Langley High School

Thursday, October 29
8:45 AM Herndon High School
10:30 AM Park View High School
12:30 PM Briar Woods High School
2:15 PM Potomac Falls High School
3:15 PM Dominion High School

Friday, October 30
9:30 AM Freedom High School
11:00 AM Loudoun County High School
12:00 PM Heritage High School
3:15 PM Loudoun Valley High School

Unfortunately, the timing of my trip means I'm missing a huge tradition here on Grounds: the trick-or-treat on The Lawn. Each year, residents living on The Lawn host a trick-or-treat event for area children. CavDog turned into CavBee when he was still a puppy to take part in the festivities. Last year, he dressed up as a lion to prowl The Lawn for kissable children (a favorite past time of his). He has a costume lined up, too.

More UVa blog goodness!

While I was at the national conference for those of us who are in the admission world, I heard a speaker talk about students' expectations. He basically said that if other schools do something, students will expect it of you. If you manage to do that something, you aren't necessarily distinguishing yourself, but keeping current with others in the field.

It was an interesting idea and I started thinking about our student blogs during the discussion that followed. Most school have fairly formal student blogger programs. The students are usually given a schedule or goal with some sort of incentive to stay on task.

Between our small staff and the prominence of students self-governance here, we don't really keep tabs on our student bloggers. We don't enforce a schedule or establish goals for them. Our students started their blogs on their own and maintain them on their own. I think it makes them write authentically and with enthusiasm. I wouldn't want blogging to become a chore for them!

Anyway, when you're looking for a break from admission talk, go read the student blogs and ask some questions over there. They're writing some wonderful posts and I'm sure they'd enjoy interacting with you.

Hoo Stories
A team blog written by eleven students with a range of class years

AccessUVa
A team blog written by thirteen students, an activity of Hoos for Open Access, a student group that promotes awareness of financial resources available for UVa students


UVa Life
One student's life at UVa, including ups and downs, frustrations and celebrations


Transferring to Uva
Hints and updates from Transfermer, an admission dean who works with transfer students

UVa Today
The source for news and updates from around Grounds


There's a pretty comprehensive list of UVa blogs on the UVa Today website.

Thoughts after a week on the road

As you can see from the last post, I just spent a week in New England with my friends from JHU and NU. We had a wonderful time meeting students, parents, and counselors during our programs.

A topic that came up time and again was one I thought we addressed and settled already. However, the daily questions about it beg me to revisit the topic of

Score Choice

First of all, most colleges in this country have been looking at your best combination of SAT scores for many years. When Score Choice was introduced, it was advocating a more restricted version of what we already do. At UVa, our practices remain the same. Our system is programed to pull the best verbal, best math, and best writing scores of those on file. Readers don't see anything else. For the ACT, we see the best composite score and the subscores related to that best composite score (we do not recombine ACT subscores to come up with a new composite).

I realize that some students won't believe us and will still use Score Choice to hide their scores. I only hope that they do not feel the need to take the test more times.

I fear that that the seniors who are asking us about Score Choice are fixated on something that they don't need to worry about at this point. Send your scores and move on.

I love that dirty water! (on my way to Boston)

I'm on my way to Boston for a few days where after some time seeing friends and family, I'll join my friends from Hopkins and Northwestern for evening programs and counselor breakfasts in southern New England. Here's our schedule (click the links to RSVP for one of these programs):

Sunday, October 11 - Nobles and Greenough School in Dedham, MA
Monday, October 12 - Sheraton Colonial Hotel in Wakefield, MA
Tuesday, October 13 - Lincoln School Music Center in Providence, RI
Wednesday, October 14 - Darien High School in Darien, CT
Thursday, October 15 - Simsbury High School, Simsbury, CT

All programs are at 7:30 PM


In my search for a video of Dirty Water playing at Fenway Park, I stumbled upon video of a Charlottesville band (which includes one UVa graduate) playing the song.

Youtube break!

Just an FYI before I get to the good stuff. I created a Class of 2014 Facebook group for applicants to use as a place to chat and ask questions. After admission decisions come out, I'll hand over administration of the group to the students. Perhaps the class council should take it over when they are elected.

Okay, on to the post...

I link or embed Youtube videos now and then on the blog and I can't help but share some that made me laugh today. The second year class council has created a program called First Year Friends that aims to connect new students to second years with similar interests...sort of like a Big Brother/Big Sister group. The introductory video went out via the Class of 2013 Facebook group last night and I'm sure it had a few people laughing.



That same class council did some hilarious videos last year, when they were first year students. I'll link to just one and trust that like most people, you'll get lost in a Youtube labyrinth and spend the next 30 minutes watching related videos.

Should you waive your right to see recommendations?

The subject of waiving rights recently came up among our professional organization's membership and I thought I'd see how you feel about this.

When you request recommendations from your counselor and teacher, you'll be asked to indicate whether you waive your right to see the letters that are submitted for you. Back when I was in high school, there wasn't much debate about this. Everyone signed off on the waiver. I couldn't imagine why I'd want to hunt down what my teachers had said about me...after all, I was asking them to write for me because I knew their letters would be positive. However, things have changed and it seems as though more students are reserving the right to check up on their recommendations. Interestingly, this right is only intact at the schools where you matriculate, so the only recommendations you'd be able to see are the ones that were part of an application that got you admitted to a school.

Anyway, there was much debate over this topic. Some admission officers didn't seem to care much about whether rights were waived, but many felt otherwise. They felt that writers wouldn't write freely and that they'd be crafting a vague letter. In essence, they thought that not signing the waiver deprived students of a complete and comprehensive recommendation.

I personally don't take much time pondering the waiver part of the recommendation form, but I think that if you trust your teacher enough to request their recommendation, you probably don't really need to see that letter years down the line.

Another thing to consider: in almost ten years of doing this, I have only seen two recommendations that weren't positive or complimentary and both of those letters were read when I worked for another school. So, I have only read positive recommendations at UVa. Our applicants seem to do a good job when it comes to selecting their recommendation writers.

What do you think about recommendation waivers? Do you think admission officers should take into account whether an applicant has waived their rights or not?

Happy Friday!

Have a fun, relaxing weekend, everyone!

Common App tutorial for requesting counselor & teacher recommendations

As if you haven't heard it enough, we're a paperless office. Ideally, each component of your application will be submitted electronically, including your school forms, transcripts, and recommendations.

The Common App has put together a quick video that walks you through the process of requesting information from your counselors and teachers. It also explains how you can request a recommendation from a teacher for a specific school.

Please encourage your schools to move to electronic submission! If we all get on board with this, we'll save time and resources (paper, toner, transportation costs associated with mail). Online submission is easy and it is far more "trackable" than the mail is.

The Common Application

Let me put this out there right off the bat: I love the Common Application.

I came to UVa knowing there was a plan to move to a new Student Information System (central system where all student records are kept) and had a feeling we could go paperless and possibly move to the Common App at the same time. I was pretty adamant that the band-aid be ripped off all at once, meaning all three of these changes should be done concurrently. It would be hard, but at least the transition wouldn't be prolonged over many years. After a few years of meticulous planning by a fantastic team, we were live with all three - the new SIS, the paperless system, and the Common App.

During all of this, we worked with people from all sorts of outside organizations and the Common App group was an absolute dream. That contributed to my affinity for the new app. What's more, I remember friends applying to Common App schools back when I was in high school and they simply made copies of forms to send off while I sat in front of a typewriter (this is a while back) trying to fit my information into form after form because none of my schools were Common App schools (just checked and all but one are members today).

Anyway, there is a reason we are Common App exclusive these days. The Common App is a good vehicle and it has simplified the process immensely. There are bound to be hiccups with any online app, but with the Common App, there is a fantastic team waiting to help you and solve any problems you have.


Oddly, at the NACAC conference last week, another online app was marketing itself by calling the Common App "elitist" because only schools that are holistic in their admission process (meaning schools that consider essays and recommendations instead of just objective statistics) can use it. I realize that there are schools out there that have a formula for admission and that works for them, but I don't think it's fair to call us elitist if we want to read your words and hear about who you are beyond your grades and testing.

You don't have to pay to play

A few weeks ago, we got invited to a college fair in the suburb of a small city in the south. The invitation came from a yahoo email address and no one recognized the name of the group behind it. The fair was being held at a golf club and the letter said there would be a $10,000 "scholarship" given out, raffle style, to one of the attendees. To have a table at the fair, all we had to do was pay $1,180.

Needless to say, we declined.

The person behind that yahoo email address has been pretty persistent and has continued to email us, wondering how we could pass up on this opportunity.


Around the same time, we got anther invitation to a fair, this time costing us close to $900. The students invited to attend were ones who paid $45 to belong to some scholars society. You probably know these groups...they sound impressive, but I could nominate CavDog for membership and they'd happily cash the check and add him to the rolls.

I asked around about whether people were seeing a rise in the number of these fairs and a colleague in Ohio reported back that their local TV station sponsored a college day and wanted $1,000 for a table that their fair and $17,000 from colleges that wanted to co-sponsor (no report on whether anyone took them up on that offer).


In case you didn't know, those costs are insane. Most college fairs are free to both the colleges and the students. There are a few, mostly those held in giant convention centers, that cost a little bit on the college's side, but the fees are no where near those I described above.

It's no secret that there are a lot of people out there who are willing to help you with your college search for a fee. Some of the help these people give is great, but there are people out there who are hoping to make some money off the fear and anxiety that surrounds this process. I want you to know and I want you to make sure your friends know that they don't have to "pay to play".

Students and parents should not be paying a fee to attend college fairs or information sessions. We hear about events with admission fees every year (especially events about financial aid and scholarships), but it seems as though the number of them is growing. Stay away from them.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…college fair season

My post title is actually a little sarcastic. It’s college fair season, when admission officers pack their trunks full of boxes of brochures, don their most comfortable shoes, and race around the country while trying to stay ahead of hunger pains and caffeine headaches. We encounter all sorts of people, from the bewildered to the clueless to the fearful to the aggressive. At some fairs (especially those at malls or large venues), our alumni help us by answering questions with us. It’s chaotic and tiring, but also fun. We wind up having a lot of stories by the time the college fair season is done.

The real point of this post is to give you some things to think about before you head off to a college fair. These are things that will help you get better information out of us and help us not leave the fair contemplating a career move.




1. Do a little homework
If you already have a few schools on your list, go to their websites and look up the basics (population, number of applications, deadlines, and admission stats). At one mall fair a few years ago, the only questions being asked were about the average SAT scores and the average GPA. The firsts stat is on our website and on the brochures we give out at these fairs. The second is a tricky statistic because of all the different GPA scales and weights out there. It’s not really a significant stat. I got so tired of the questions that I made two table tents with the answers on them. Of course, then people would read them, look at me, and ask the same question again in the form of a question (“So the average SAT score is 1250-1430?”).




2. Don't ask “How is your __ department?” or “Tell me about your ___ department.”
These questions make admission officers cringe. At a busy fair, few admission officers are going to give anything other than a vague, positive response. There was a time when I would respond asking for clarification (“What would you like to know about our psychology department?”) hoping to get a more specific question. I had a friend at another school who used to simply reply with “very strong” and wait for follow up questions, which didn’t always come.

There is rarely enough time for us to remember who asked us certain questions, so feel free to ask about the fun stuff - food, dorms, activities, sports, etc.



3. We don't expect you to have a resume

A few years ago, I started seeing students arrive at college fairs with stacks of resumes in hand. To be frank, we don’t want your resumes. If you wind up applying to our schools, you will probably fill in a chart with your activities anyway. The resume is redundant. What’s more, those of us who work in paperless offices don’t want to arrive home from a week on the road with stacks of paper.

We aren't expecting you to be perfectly polished at a college fair. You don't have to dress up or be ready to recite your stats. There really isn't enough time for us to get to know you, so relax and don't feel pressured!




4. Conserve your energy and our paper
One of my colleagues called me this morning to say that she went through 750 brochures at a college fair last night. She said that the students at the fair were younger than ever, including a family shopping around with their 5th grader. Pace yourselves. Whatever information you gather from a college fair is going to change in a year or two. While it’s good to attend a fair when you first start your search, there is no reason to go to one of these things if you aren’t going to file an application in the next couple of years. Starting early is good, but starting too early is going to lead to burn out.


For those of you who are juniors and seniors going to college fairs, take it slowly and if you are there when the fair starts, skip the first row of tables so you can walk around without a crowd on your heels. Bring some address labels to stick on the postcards each college will have. It will save time and make sure that colleges have your correct contact info (important for matching things up and avoiding duplicates on our mailing lists).

My colleague also noticed that a family would approach the table and each take a brochure. Now, some schools are happy to unload all of their “stuff” on you, but being a public school on a budget and also being a paperless office, we hope that you’ll help us conserve resources by taking one brochure and sharing it with your family. The school website is more up to date than the brochures are anyway.


I’m sure there are more pointers to be give on getting the most out of a college fair. Feel free to ask questions or share you advice for others in the comments.

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites

Let's get this out there first and foremost: I have no interest in tracking applicants down online. I have no interest in reading their feeds, seeing their pictures, or gauging their interest based on online content.

My old philosophy about social media was that it was the students' domain and we should stay out of it. I've changed my stance over time, though. Now, I figure that I should provide students with as many easy ways to contact me as possible so they can get questions answered. So, I'm on Facebook, Twitter, Ning (rarely), instant messengers (on deadline nights), and the blog. The important aspect of my presences is that I'm not searching students out. They decide how they want to get in touch with me. The contact is on their terms.

If you want to make up an alias and comment daily, that's great. If you never talk to me using these vehicles, that's fine, too.

EDIT: I should add that I post something like this each year, just to restate my position on the issue. I gave an interview to USA Today about this last week and the resulting article spawned similar pieces by Reuters (with quotes from my interview, interestingly) and CBS.

On a rainy day...

...there's nothing better than thinking about how beautiful this region is in the fall. UVa Magazine has a nice web feature showing 16 things to love about Charlottesville in the fall. At the end, there's a video of students chiming in with the things they look forward to about this season.

I can't wait to put away the rain boots and do some of the things on the list.

The logistics of filing applications and credentials

For a few decades now, admission offices around the country have been processing applications and filing all the supplements (required and completely superfluous alike) that come along with them. Everything was paper "back in the day" (and by that, I mean 2006) and an entire room of our office was dedicated to keeping track of of the paper.

Applications got file folders. Anything that arrived before an application got filed in miscellaneous credential files. Each time an application arrived, staff members would go through the credential files to match supplements with applications. This process was used at every school at which I have been employed. It worked quite well.

With the implementation of paperless admission processes, all of those physical files are gone, but the process remains, albeit with a few changes. When credentials arrive before your application, they still get filed, but they get filed electronically. Ideally, the items coming from your school would come electronically, though the Common App's counselor and teacher portals. If something comes in the physical mail, it has to be opened, have staples and any special packaging (folders, binders, etc) removed, then scanned into our paperless system, and manually labeled with your information and the document type (transcript, recommendation, etc.). Items that come in through the Common App's system already have all of that information embedded in the electronic files, so our system can automatically file them.

The testing agencies have been sending scores electronically for years. Scores show up almost daily and they just sit in the system until there's an application.

One thing that we've have to deal with since going paperless is, surprisingly, MORE paper! For some reason, despite getting confirmation that an electronic item has been submitted to us, people are sending us paper duplicates. Some applicants fill out the Common App online, but print it out and mail it to us. Others send us elaborate supplements (and I'm not talking about the portfolios submitted by students who are going to study performing or visual arts). Please help us out! We are a relatively small office and all of this extra paper slows down the process.

Remember that colleges ask for what they need to make an admission decision and they will provide a vehicle for you to submit that information. You don't need to submit complex extras. This process is complicated enough without worrying about those sorts of things!

Under the weather

I had hoped to have a few posts for you this week, but I'm under the weather right now. I promise to be back and posting more regularly in a few days.

CavDog's even happy when he's sick

Paint the Town Orange Pep Rally

iPhones aren't the best at catching action shots, but I figured I'd share a few pictures I snapped last night at the pep rally. The last photo was attempt to catch Tracy Clemons, a local television reporter, completely fired up and dancing throughout the rally. I have a feeling he was a member of the marching band when he was a student at UVa (edit: just checked his profile on the station's website and he was in the band).




By the way, before home football games, the University sponsors free lectures for visitors and alumni. If you plan to be in town on a football game day (we don't really encourage prospective student visits on these days, but we realize they sometimes happen), check the More than the Score website for info about the lectures!

Getting ready to hit the road

I'm getting a late start with the travel season this year. We're cutting back on travel (again) and my trips will be limited. I'll be spending a week in northern Virginia and one week in New England with my friends from Hopkins and Northwestern. I'd like to do a STEM Program (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) in northern Virginia, but changes in policies up there have stymied our plans a little bit.

Next week, I'll post my specific travel plans. For now, check out the "UVa Visits You" page on our website. We have most of our evening programs scheduled and ready for RSVPs.

By the way, please RSVP for evening programs if a registration form is provided (we ask you to RSVP for our group programs, the ones we do with other schools). We report headcounts to the venues where the events take place and rooms are often set up to accommodate those numbers. Last year, it seemed that many people showed up without RSVPing, which overwhelmed meeting spaces and left many people without a place to sit during our presentations. Even if you only realize a day before the event that you can attend, you should fill out the RSVP form if there is one.

New energy monitors on Grounds

As I was walking to an information session last week, I wondered why a flat screen monitor was mounted waist high on the wall. Turns out that Newcomb Hall (our student union) has kiosks where you can monitor the energy consumption of the building. I haven't made a point to track these down elsewhere, but I think it would be neat to know how much energy different buildings use during the day.

I took these photos around lunch time on Friday, which is when Newcomb is pretty crowded with students. It's no surprise that energy consumption peaks in the middle of the day.

Pictures from move in day

While the crowd from Saturday's information session were off on a tour, CavDog and I took a walk around Grounds to see how move in day looked. Here are a few pictures from our walk...

The SAT and Score Choice

I figured I'd make the title of this post very simple so it comes up in searches.

When we read your files, we are only interested in seeing your very best scores. We set up our system to pluck the best composite ACT score (we don't recombine the sections) and the best of each section of the SAT (sometimes called super scoring). If you take the SAT more than once, we will only see your best score from each of the three sections.

I'm really not interested in anything but the best scores. Just send your reports through the official channels and the application system will make sure we see the highest scores.