So here we are at the end of day #2 of Early Action committee 2006. We all came into committee knowing how strong the applicant pool is and knowing there would be some difficult decisions ahead of us, but I think today really showed us how much talent there is across the board in this Early Action pool. When referring to one of the applicants from her territory, one of our Associate Deans said, "Well, there were some minuses-- A-minuses." That about sums up the past couple of days!

While the counseling staff continues to marvel at the academic quality of the applications in committee, a lot of the discussion time is spent on the non-academic side of the applicants. In many (or most!) cases, an application that is being reviewed in the committee setting features a student who has performed very well academically, and due to the depth of the pool, it often comes down to the subjective factors when we are making these difficult decisions. As I've mentioned in previous postings, this is the time when involvement, leadership, recommendations, writing statements, and overall match and fit to PC play crucial roles in the process. Since these are the subjective (or "human") factors, the amount of time spent discussing an applicant can vary widely; with some, the entire staff quickly comes to the conclusion that a student would be a great fit to PC and the decision is made. With other applicants, however, we spend a much longer time coming to a consensus-- many times because the student has some type of story that needs to be told and considered. It's very interesting to note that especially with these candidates, I am sometimes surprised with the direction the committee chooses to go. Sometimes there is a "feel" in the room that counselors are leaning toward "invite" or "defer," and then we reach the opposite conclusion by the end of the discussion. Of course, it's a good thing that counselors aren't coming in with preconceived notions on applicants; rather, we use the information presented to us by the student in his or her application to come to our final decision. We weigh each student's application in the context of our applicant pool, and work to invite the students who we see as truly the best fit (inside and outside of the classroom) to PC.

General observations from the first two days:

-High school curriculum is enormously important in the eyes of the committee (I know that this is old news for many of you... I've said it countless times in this blog, we say it at every high school visit and on-campus information session that we do, but it certainly rings true in the committee setting). Students who take weak senior schedules are at an extreme disadvantage in the review (we really mean it when we say competitive candidates for admission have taken 4 years of the 5 core subject areas and taken an appropriate level of advanced/honors/AP/IB courses in the context of what their high school offers).

-Applicants who declare Biology as their major really need to have a strong math preparation along with their strong science prep (i.e. advancing well beyond Algebra 2 or Trigonometry).

-There is a healthy respect for students work at a part-time job during the school year. We understand the responsibility (and time commitment) that goes with this, and we are amazed at some students' abilities to balance a job, a strong academic performance, and still be meaningfully involved in extra-curricular activities.

-Fit to the Providence College community is a very important consideration as well. I know I've said it before (such as earlier in this posting!), but it bears repeating: we are looking for students who we feel are the right match to PC both in and outside of the classroom and will contribute positively to our campus community.

On to day #3 tomorrow... a longer day so that we are able to stay on track and make sure that our decision letters are sent out on schedule. Tomorrow's schedule consists of a morning session (9:00 AM to noon), an afternoon session (2:00 PM to 4:30 PM) and, for the first time this week, an evening session (6:00 PM to 9:00 PM). I will let you know how the sessions go! Hope you're having a great week!

*Scott