September is half over, and Fall is truly upon us. In Memphis you can tell because it is finally cool at night, and it is quiet with the windows open to the fresh air instead of hearing the steady drone of air conditioners struggling to keep buildings cool.
The Fall season has always been a hectic time for me. In the past when I worked in college admissions it meant travel to visit students, parents and counselors in various cities around the country and the world; a fun and exciting time, but also exhausting. For the last six years the Fall has meant helping seniors finalize their college list and working on the flood of early application forms that have to be completed quickly and correctly to meet earlier and earlier deadlines.
Now that I am back at Rhodes in admissions, it strikes me that in many ways, the rush of Fall activity is a signal of what is both good and bad about the college admission process. The good part is seeing a young person’s eyes light up when they have found just the right college—and that college is yours. It is also good when there is time to really capture the essence of a student in a recommendation letter so that the college she is applying to knows that their school is a perfect fit for her.
The bad part is the complexity and stress of the admission process. With all my years of experience, it was sometimes impossible for me to figureout what was being required of students I was counseling. And the deadlines… I can’t even begin to talk about how overwhelming the many different deadlines for different types of programs and scholarships can be.
Another bad part is when students or their parents are closed-minded about schools which could offer a wonderful education and future just because they don’t recognize the name. Broadening the college list is sometimes a frustrating process. When someone would tell me they had not heard of a college I recommended to them, some really fine, small college in Maryland, for instance, I would ask them “Do you think all the kids in Maryland have heard of Rhodes?” No, of course not, but that doesn’t mean Rhodes isn’t the fine college it is. They just don’t know about it because it is small. Thankfully books like Colleges That Change Lives and the accompanying web site and others are helping families explore places they would never have known about. And college counselors can help, if students and parents take their advice.
For now, I’ll soon be planning my visits to local schools. I miss talking with students, so I am looking forward to that. I’ll be remembering the good and bad parts of the admission process, trying to contribute to the good part and minimize the bad.
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