Essays, Essays Everywhere!

I’m on an application reading high!  After my eyes FINALLY adjusted after the eye dr. appointment yesterday (bad news bears, kids–I couldn’t read apps, I could even read my computer screen.  Totally blurry), I delved into apps for the good part of the afternoon, and I just wrapped up reading some incredible ones today.  Here are some of the highlights!

• An essay that shared how life and baking chocolate chip cookies can be related.  ”When the doughing gets tough, the tough get doughing!”
• A future English Teacher who also builds robots and lead her high school robotics team to victory for the first time in its 15 year history.
• A fab essay about getting lost in a foreign country and the power of language
• Fargo–the horse that helped JT become the woman she is today
• A student who chopped down her own Charlie Brown Christmas tree to inspire a family Christmas this year
• And a student from “far” up north who has involved herself so much in her community–I’m not sure she even realizes how much her presence will be missed next fall

Awesome, awesome girls over the past 24 hours!  And they will be WELCOMED members of our Class of 2014.

PS You too can have your totally awesome app read by me too if you get it in by the February 1st deadline!

Happy Anniversary!

My mother is a very superstitious woman, and as such growing up we were encouraged to avoid walking under ladders, kept our distance from black cats, always had something new to wear on Easter (even if only socks), and on New Years Day you had to be your best.  Why on the New Year, you ask?  In my family’s mind it’s quite simple–whatever you do on New Years Day you do all year-long.  So growing up as January 1 would round the bend, we had to be extra sure that we made our beds, ate all our vegetables, didn’t fight with the other sibling, and eleven years ago I had to do my college search.

Not that I hadn’t been doing it all along, but I can still hear Mom saying, “GAL (or more appropriately eleven years ago, GAF), have you looked at colleges yet today?  You’re a Junior, and you need to be working on this college search thing All. Year. Long.” 

So I jumped on the computer and pulled up the college I was totally going to go to and started poking around, and quickly noticed that back in 1999 it was the second most wired women’s college, according to Yahoo.  I sat there thinking, “I wonder who’s first?” as I clicked on the link.  Serendipitously enough, it just happened to be SBC.  As I started looking through the information on the front page, it looked perfect.  After a few moments of poking around, Mom was behind me reading through everything as well musing about how this college seemed so perfect for me.  We finally started to hunt around for WHERE exactly SB was, and as soon as Virginia popped up, Mom turned on her heel exclaiming, “Over my dead body!”

At which point I immediately signed up to get on the mailing list

Yes, the ten hours was daunting, especially since the farthest I had strayed from my MA suburban hometown was about 3 hours.  But after much research and cajoling on my part, and tons on notes and info from my admissions counselor, hockey coach, and school in general, my parents agreed to take me down for a visit.  That visit changed all of our perceptions about the college, and aside from sneaky signing up for info was one of the key reasons I enrolled at the college.

Long story short, not only did I do my college search for the remainder of my Junior year, eleven years later I’m still “doing” SBC.   Pretty cool, I think  

I hope that this New Year brings you lots of health and happiness and a trip back on campus!

Music to my ears

There is no better sound to an admissions counselor than when you go to hang up the phone after you’ve told  a student she’s accepted, and you hear this “YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE–*click*!” as the student runs off to tell her family.

Pure music to my ears!

They’ve got…Personality!

Our students rock.  Plain and simple, they rock the den–the Vixen Den  Whether it’s crafting and unbelievable application essay, or coming to the call of duty to help serve our community, our girls are at the call, ready to spring to action, both on our campus and even before you get here.  How lucky are we that we get to work with you all?!

Application reading, as I’ve shared earlier, has been awesome thus far.  Future Class of 2014, you are putting that bar high for yourselves, and I for one LOVE IT!  What I’ve gathered about  you so far (and feel free to let me know if my assumptions are correct!) is as follows:

1. You’re high achieving.  You want to do your best, and you’re willing to put the extra mile(s) in to be your best
2. As such, you’re looking for the best.  The best fit that is–more of you are concerned with finding that right “fit” with your college, and I see that as a wonderful thing to look for!
3. Along with fit, you’re very community minded–from community service, to finding the community that you feel at “home” at, to making a meaningful impact in the community in which you live, this is so important to you.
4. Part of why community is so important is because that’s where you, your family and your friends call home.  Family and friends, being loyal and faithful to them, and making those significant bonds are important to you.  ”Place where I feel like I’m home” has been a common theme on what you’re looking for.
5. You are DOERS.  My gosh, you girls are into EVERYTHING.  I have figure skaters, missionaries, writers, musicians, kids who I have no doubt will find the cure for cancer, girls who will design the next great invention, and and young women who will educate our future children.   You are all over the map in what you do, but no matter what you’re doing, you love to do it.
6. You’re excited about your future, and so are we

As we move forward, I’ll try to keep adding to this list.  Every class that comes into SB has a feel and personality of their own, and I love that we can already start to see it even in November.

 

 

Being Greener

Much like my beloved Kermit said, it’s not easy being Green.  Making the conscious choice to live a greener lifestyle or create a greener work environment is a tough one–sometimes the easy thing to do is chuck something in the trash can instead of walking it over to the recycling bin; sometimes it’s easier to print out a document to read rather than reading it on your screen.  Thinking long and hard about what you use, how you use it, and how you might get rid of it takes time, effort, and energy.

With that in mind, I’m really excited to announce here on the blog that our office is taking another step toward being Greener–we are no longer printing our application to mail to you.  I say Greener because you can still choose to print our online application and mail that paper form to us, and we will send a paper application to students who may not have access to our online version.  I also say Greener because we mailed you a postcard announcing this change.

But it’s a step in the right direction, right?  Right!

There’s also another big change with our application–we are simplifying our process (and thus yours) by offering Responsive Admissions.

What the heck is that?

You must apply before the priority deadline of February 1st, but if you have you application complete and into us today, Sept. 9th, you will have an answer from us in one month.  That’s right, folks, you’ll hear from me by Oct. 9th.  Thirty days, 720 hours, 43,200 minutes, however you want to qualify that.  Quick, simplified, responsive.

Exciting, huh?  We’re tremendously excited to see what this means for you, and how this will hopefully make your lives easier.  Which means we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback and we venture forth on this new Greener, more responsive terrain.  Feel free to comment here, or e-mail at gloughhead@sbc.edu.

Want to apply right now?  Check out the following links for tools to our admissions process.

Application 101

Our PDF

Common App

Show me the Money (or at least an estimate)