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Greetings from San Francisco!
No, I didn't get drafted by the Giants, but I am out here in California for the next week or so attending college fairs and meeting juniors who are getting deeper into their college searches. While our office is very focused on the upcoming May 1 deposit deadline, life does go on outside of the current senior class!
I attended a very busy fair today at St. Mary's College of California east of Oakland. The staff there estimated that 5,000 people were in attendance, mostly juniors (and their parents) but also a handful of sophomores who were getting a very early jump on their college search process. Along with updates from California, I will also keep you up to date with any information I receive from back in Providence about any movement on the waiting list. I will post any information on that front as soon as I know! Have a great rest of your weekend!
For students who are currently on our waiting list for admission, please keep an eye out for the next waiting list e-mail update which will likely be sent out tomorrow, and will give you the most up-to-date information we have with regard to the status of the waiting list. As of right now, I can tell you that 848 students have chosen to keep their names in active consideration on the waiting list, should spaces become available in the Class of 2011 after May 1.
As of today, our number of deposited students is running behind what it was on this date last year-- remember, though, that we are also looking to enroll a smaller class than we enrolled last year (by about 65 students). If the current pace continues, it looks like there will be some spaces available in the freshman class for students who are currently on the waiting list. However, it is difficult to predict how deposit numbers will change between today and May 1, and each year, many students do wait until the last minute to send in their enrollment deposits. In speaking with admission staff at some other institutions, we believe that will be the case this year as well-- there are many students who are still deciding among the institutions that have admitted them and they will be sending their deposit into the school of their choice sometime between today and the postmark deadline of May 1.
As we are looking for a smaller freshman class than last year, we admitted fewer students this year than last year and ideally would like to admit some students off of the waiting list to round out the Class of 2011. Again, each year is different, so while we are cautiously optimistic about some spaces being available to students coming off of the waiting list, we will not know for sure until we have reached the May 1 deposit deadline. The Committee on Admission has not yet started a review of students on the waiting list who have requested further consideration, and as we have stated previously, the waiting list is not numbered or ranked.
If the decision is made to activate the waiting list, all post-May 1 notifications to students will be made by telephone with an official letter following in the mail. As of right now, it is too early to know if financial assistance will be available for students admitted from the waiting list, but any offers of admission will include information about the availability of financial assistance-- in other words, students will not be required to submit a deposit without knowing their financial aid package and cost of attendance.
Just a reminder that students who are on our waiting list should submit a deposit to their next choice school by the deadline of May 1, to make sure that they have a place reserved for the fall semester. Please remember, however, that if a student is invited and chooses to enroll at PC, deposits sent to other institutions may not be refundable.
Please continue to keep an eye out for additional waiting list information via e-mail. If you do have additional questions, feel free to call our office to speak with an admission counselor about the waiting list process. We will provide additional information as soon as we know if there will be spaces available in the freshman class.
...is approaching rather quickly! To all of you who have been accepted but haven't yet decided if you will attend PC, I wish you the best of luck in making your final decision over the next week. Spring has arrived here in Providence (well, for today, anyway... it might be 50 degrees again tomorrow... gotta love the New England weather!!!), and we are happy to have any last minute visitors explore campus over the next week before you make your decision on where to enroll. There has been a great spring-time atmosphere on campus this week with classes being held outdoors, students studying out on the lawns, and frisbee/wiffle ball/football games taking place on the quad... The atmosphere has been really fun on campus with the sun shining, especially with all of the rain we had last week... So, again, please know that you are welcome to come back to campus one final time to help make your decision-- even if you don't want to take an official tour, certainly feel free to just walk around on your own... have lunch in our dining hall... chat with some current students... Visits can definitely help in that decision-making!!
Also, remember that we do have our new virtual tour up and running, and this is another way to take a last look at PC's offerings before the May 1 enrollment deadline.
As always, please feel free to post any questions here or call our office to speak with a counselor to make sure you have all of the information you need before making your decision. Enjoy the spring weather!!!
For all of you who have enrolled at PC, you can now find out when your summer orientation sessions will take place! All of our undeclared students will come to orientation in late June, and students who are declared will be grouped by major during the last week of June or in early July. Click here to see the 2007 summer orientation schedule!
Hello again to all of you invited to the PC Class of 2011 who attended Family Day on Saturday! It was great to meet many of you in person and I also want to say thanks to everyone who had compliments for this blog!! If you missed Family Day, here is the recap in pictures:
Two of our Admission Ambassador superstars, Sarah and Seth, helping out with campus signage:
Welcome to PC, members of the Class of 2011!
 
Touring the campus with a member of our Friars Club:
 
One exciting place to visit while touring: The new fitness center, which as you can see is getting closer and closer to opening (August 2007!!):
Trolley tours with Ambassadors Kim and Will were a great ride!
 
Harkins Hall, home to the Office of Admission, where a number of students signed and turned in their Enrollment Reservation Forms to officially join the freshman class (congratulations!!!!!):
The Ambassador crew hanging out in the Office of Admission and helping newly enrolled students to fill out their housing forms:
I hope that all of you who made it to Family Day enjoyed the experience and had all of your questions answered! For the invited seniors who couldn't make it Saturday but still want to visit campus a final time before making their decision about where to attend school next fall, please feel free to come see us!! Campus tours are happening every day except Sundays through May 1! And, as always, please feel free to call our office and speak with admission counselor to have any last-minute questions answered!!!
After reviewing 9,800 applications for admission to the Class of 2011, the admission staff has seen it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. In this posting, I will focus on the bad and the ugly—some of the common mistakes (and at times, just plain laziness) that we observed in this year’s applications. Though I’ll be writing in a very lighthearted way, and many of these mistakes may make you laugh, they are not so humorous if they appear in your application. So, juniors, pay attention… and make sure none of the following appear in your application for admission next year!
Some of our favorite misspellings/incorrect word choices:
1. Guidance Councilor—Actually, we have found that there are many incorrect ways to spell counselor… but this is the most popular version. It appears so often that we start to wonder if high schools are spelling it this way above their guidance offices! Correct Spelling: Guidance Counselor
2. Honor Role—It’s tough to go more than two applications without finding this one. Correct Spelling: Honor Roll
3. Threw life—The first two we see quite often, but thankfully, this mistake is not nearly as common. Still, in my own geographic territory alone, I saw this on at least three occasions… which is at least three times too many… Correct Spelling: Through life.
4. Edjucation—Yes, I really did have a student spell it this way. Really. Correct Spelling: Education.
5. Buisness—Business seems to be a relatively easy word to spell, but from the number of times we see the “i� and “s� reversed, I guess that it’s not! Correct Spelling: Business.
6. Pschology—or sometimes “pyschology� or even “pschyology.� Correct Spelling: Psychology.
7. Captian—In fact, we see many three-sport “captians� who spell it this way each time they write it. Correct Spelling: Captain.
A couple of other mistakes we see too often:
1. A student spelling their own street incorrectly. Yep. Happens more than you’d expect. The student spells it one way on the application, and a different way on the additional forms they send in. And then we find it spelled a THIRD way on the transcript. Great. (Better than spelling your own name wrong, though… which has also been known to occur…)
2. The infamous “search and replace� specific interest college essay… Where the student finishes the essay with the following line: “That is why I can’t wait to attend (school that is NOT Providence College) in the fall.� Search and replace is great… but only if you remember to do the replacing! Unfortunately, this is also becoming more and more common in teacher recommendations, where the teacher firmly believes the student will be a perfect fit at (enter name of school that is NOT Providence College here). Oops.
And finally, some other things we chuckle at… Or that juniors should avoid on their applications next year:
1. Inappropriate e-mail addresses, such as: soccerhottie245@whatever.com. Or ihatemustard@so-and-so.com (and these are tame pretend examples compared with some we see!). It is so easy to open a free e-mail account through hotmail or yahoo, so why not create a college-specific address that you’ll be sure to check often with your first name and last name (i.e. Joe_Smith@something.com). It makes you look a great deal more mature. But, I will admit, we do get a lot of laughs at the e-mail addresses we see each year.
2. When a student tries to impress us with their knowledge of PC by saying something like, “I truly want to attend PC because of your fine Franciscan tradition� or “As I currently attend a Jesuit high school, I know the value of such an education and want to continue my Jesuit education at PC next year.� Valiant attempts, but PC is run by the Dominican Order.
3. Please, please, please, if you use the pronoun “I� in your application (which you will!), make sure to capitalize it. Remember, this is your college essay you’re writing, not an e-mail... or a blog...
4. And finally, please don’t use Instant Messenger shorthand anywhere in your application! (Thx! TTYL!)
The invitation letters for students accepted into the Liberal Arts Honors Program have been released, and I thought I would spend a little time talking about the selection process and the credentials for the students who were selected to be part of the Honors Program (and therefore receive a merit scholarship, as all merit scholarships are exclusively tied to the Honors Program). As I wrote about at Early Action (click here and scroll down to December 19), the selection process for the Honors Program was incredibly competitive at EA, and it remained just as competitive during Regular Decision.
First of all, for those of you who missed it at EA, while we are looking for 960 students in next year's entire freshman class, there are only about 135 spaces available in the Honors Program. As this was the most competitive year in PC's history with regard to admission (an overall acceptance rate of about 40%), you would be correct to infer that the students invited into the Honors Program are truly outstanding, and have achieved at the highest possible level academically in the most demanding curriculum available at their high schools.
I do want to mention here that our Liberal Arts Honors Program provides very high achieving students with a more in-depth and rigorous version of PC's core curriculum, and is open to students of all majors. Each year, students who are majoring in the areas of business, the humanities, the sciences, and many who are undeclared enroll in the Honors Program and are successful.
As I've mentioned, the overall GPA for students admitted to PC's Class of 2011 was just below an "A-minus" in a very rigorous high school curriculum... again, that is an admission invite, not an Honors Program invite. So, for the students who were selected for the Honors Program, we are talking about students who have achieved at the highest possible level throughout all four years of high school. Generally speaking, they have the following credentials:
(1) The absolute most demanding curriculum offered at their high school. In other words, these students have exhausted or nearly exhausted their high school curriculum, taking full advantage of the Honors level, AP, IB, and college-level courses that are offered at their high school.
(2) An overall GPA of an "A" over their four years in that most demanding curriculum. Again, as the average invite GPA (to the college, not the Honors Program) was an "A-minus," we are not talking about an "A-minus" average in the most demanding curriculum; rather, these are students who have basically had flawless high school careers performance-wise and have achieved at the "A" level throughout all four years in the aforementioned most challenging curriculum offered at their high school.
(3) If their high school provides class rank, these students are at the very top of their classes... on average, within the Top 3%.
(4) An "A" average in their (Honors/AP level) English classes throughout high school; as a liberal arts institution, English performance is extremely important to us both in the admission and the Honors Program review.
(5) If a student chose to submit SAT/ACT scores, they were also considered in the Honors Program review process, but they never outweighed the academic achievement in the high school classroom. Standardized test scores are an additional factor that we use if a student has made the scores available to us, but we want our Honors Program to consist of a group of students who earned their invitation into the program with four years of consistent classroom work rather than simply good standardized test-takers. The Honors Program review (like the admission review process) puts the majority of the weight on the high school academic performance rather than on standardized test scores.
Having said all of that, here are the in-depth numbers: we extended Liberal Arts Honors Program invitations to about 14% of the students who were accepted to PC this year (or about 6% of the overall applicant pool). Although there are only 135 spaces in the Honors Program, we know that these top students in our applicant pool will have many outstanding college choices and will not all choose PC, so we made about 550 overall Honors Program offers looking to enroll the 135 when we are all said and done.
A few more numbers that might interest you: There are a handful of students who have perfect "A" averages (4.0 on a 4.0 scale) who were not invited into the Honors Program. There are over 500 students who have a 3.80 GPA or better (on our unweighted 4.0 scale) that were not invited into the Honors Program. There are over 1,000 students who have an "A-minus" (3.67 on our 4.0 scale) or better overall GPA that were not invited into the Honors Program. [And that last number does not include the hundreds of students with an "A-minus" overall GPA that are on the waiting list.]
I hope that I have been able to convey to you the amazing academic depth of our applicant pool this year at PC, which made selections for the Liberal Arts Honors Program ridiculously competitive (and obviously very difficult for the admission committee to make!). I also hope that this answers many of the questions all of you have about the selection of students for the Honors Program, but if not, feel free to send additional questions along!!
One more post before break! The financial aid review took a little longer than expected, so financial aid award letters did not go out today. They will be released on Friday, so check your mailboxes early next week!!
Today marked the last day of classes on the PC campus so you probably won't be reading any new information at blog central until Monday! Early next week, I will post some information about the Liberal Arts Honors Program and the qualifications for students to be admitted into that program! Stay tuned, and have a great weekend!
I know that many of you who have been placed on the waiting list are very anxious about the whole process, and hopefully I can answer a lot of the questions that you have in this posting. Please remember that we will be sending updates via e-mail, so it is very important that you have listed a current e-mail address (that you check on a regular basis!) on your Waiting List Response Form. In addition, if you have any additional questions, you are always welcome to do any of the following: (1) post them here, and I will do my best to pass along the answer; (2) contact your specific admission counselor by e-mail (click here to see who the admission counselor for your area is); or (3) call our office at any time to speak with an admission counselor.
With regard to the time frame, I understand that it is difficult to have to wait late into your spring semester to find out if there will be spaces available here at PC, but remember that the students who have already been invited have until the national reply deadline of May 1 to enroll. That is why we are unable to let those of you on the waiting list know if there are spaces until after that date.
Each year, we receive many more qualified applicants for admission than we have spaces in the freshman class, and therefore many talented students are placed on the waiting list. This year, there are approximately 2,600 students who have been placed on the waiting list—which certainly seems like a big number (and it is!). However, if spaces in the freshman class do open up, the committee on admission will consider only the students who have chosen to remain on the waiting list, not the entire group of 2,600. We anticipate that about 1,000 students will choose to remain active on the waiting list.
Provided that there are spaces in the freshman class for next year, the selection process will take place around May 1. First of all, it is important to note that the waiting list is not numbered or ranked at PC. Once we have determined that we will activate the waiting list, we will determine the number of available male/female bed spaces and also take note of any majors that no longer have any space available. Then, the Committee on Admission will review all of the applicants who have returned their Waiting List Response Form and expressed their desire to remain on the list. The committee will undertake another thorough review of both the academic and personal qualifications of all of these applicants, so that we are able to select the most qualified students to fill the available spaces in the freshman class.
Our use of the waiting list varies from year to year, and it is very tough to predict at this point how many students (if any) will be admitted from the waiting list. Last year, for example, only 13 students were invited from the waiting list but in the previous year, 177 students were enrolled from the waiting list. Again, for those of you who are on the waiting list, make sure that you check the e-mail account you have given to us starting in mid-April for updates.
What should a student on the waiting list do now? Well, first and foremost is to return the Waiting List Response Form to us by April 15. As I have mentioned, only the students that return this form will remain in active consideration. Other things you can do include writing an additional personal statement to the Committee on Admission expressing your specific interest in PC, submitting other additional information (any new honors or activities that may not have been on your original application), and asking your high school to send along third quarter or second trimester grades. Sending this additional information is always very helpful to the Committee on Admission during the review process.
I hope that this information has been helpful to all of you who have been placed on the waiting list. I know that it is a difficult decision to receive and that waiting for more information can be stressful as well. Again, if you have additional questions, please feel free to post them here or call our office to speak with an admission counselor at any time.
Hello to all of the juniors (and sophomores!) who have been faithful readers. I know that I have been focusing a lot on the seniors and the review process but we haven't forgotten about all of you! This posting is just to let all of you who are on our electronic mailing list know that we will be sending out the April edition of Smart-Tips around the 16th instead of at the beginning of the month. So, if you are checking your e-mail wondering where the Smart-Tips are, don't worry... we haven't forgotten about you and will be sending them along mid-month!
I see that my fellow blogger Nicole mentioned the Providence College Relay For Life took place on Friday night, and I thought you might enjoy some pictures! So here they are, courtesy of "Team Admissions," made up of members of the counseling staff and our student Admission Ambassadors.
The approximate time that these pictures were taken = 4:00 AM... so actually, this was Saturday morning! I especially enjoy the blurry tug-of-war picture at the far right... definitely entertaining and it really helped to keep us awake in the early morning hours!!
  
The Relay For Life is truly an amazing team event held to fight cancer, and over 800 students and staff members participated this year. It is just one of countless community service opportunities available here at PC!
We have reached the month of April, a time of year when campus visits are very popular: Seniors who have been accepted are visiting all of their potential choices one final time, while many juniors will spend their spring breaks beginning the college search! While the admission staff here at PC hopes to see all of you on a campus visit soon, we also have a brand-new virtual tour to offer you if you're unable to make it to campus. You can access the new virtual tour by clicking here! Have fun exploring!
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