Yes, travel season is officially upon us! It is the time of year when the admission staff "hits the road" to share the Providence College story with juniors and seniors across the country and throughout the world. My first day of high school visits is next Tuesday, September 18, when I will be visiting four Massachusetts schools as part of a "mini college fair" program. We are at an "in-between" point in our office where the summer has ended and we can't wait for travel to begin! For some reason, Tuesday feels a little late for me to be starting travel, as a couple of our staff members have already been out to visit some of you - one of our counselors spent the beginning of this week in Nebraska while another has recently returned from his trip to Texas. But next week marks the big travel kickoff for our office...

Where are we headed this travel season? Well, over the next two months, PC counselors will travel on four different levels: local, regional, national, and international. On the local level, two counselors share our home state of Rhode Island, while four counselors split up Connecticut and seven of us have pieces of Massachusetts. With so many interested students in our backyard, we need to have multiple counselors for each state to handle the volume of applications that pour into our office each year.

Regionally, we have a counselor who will head to Northern New England, visiting high schools and attending college fairs in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Both New York and New Jersey are divided among five counselors, one of whom will spend a great deal of time on Long Island in September and October. As we spread out further from New England on the East Coast, counselors will spend time in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic, including high school visits in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.

On the national level, counselors will be attending college fairs and visiting high schools in more than 30 states this year. Our stops outside of the northeast include: Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Diego... (just to name a few) ...

On the international level, three our of counselors will be visiting more than 10 countries throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

So, between today and November 10, the PC admission staff will be meeting a few prospective students (and racking up a bunch of frequent flier miles!). Each year, we meet with students, parents, and guidance counselors on the road to give them an accurate picture of who we are at PC, to explain the application and admission process, and to answer any questions they may have about Providence College. It's definitely an exciting time for us because we are traveling to so many places and meeting so many people, and I will keep you up to date on our travels over the next two months!

Have a great weekend -- we'll be packing!

*Scott
9/14/07
Providence, RI