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A student’s high school curriculum is the most important piece of the review process for us, and so as we spend time recalculating the GPA, we also are spending time taking a look at how challenging a student’s courseload has been over his or her four years of high school. GPA by itself means very little, so we ALWAYS look at a GPA hand-in-hand with a student’s curriculum. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:
Applicant #1 – Sarah Student:
She has taken on a strong level of challenge, taking a predominantly honors-level curriculum over her four years of high school, and completing four years of each of the core subject areas. She finishes with a senior schedule consisting of the following:
-AP English Literature
-Honors Calculus
-Honors Physics
-Honors Government/Economics (her History course)
-AP Spanish Language (her 5th year of Spanish)
It’s a very good senior schedule—She has continued a high level of academic challenge in all 5 core subject areas. So, while the 3.61 PC GPA is “unweighted,��? it has this strong curriculum behind it… meaning it is looked at MUCH differently than a 3.61 with a weaker schedule, such as this senior courseload that I saw earlier in the day:
Applicant #2 – Jane Student:
-English 4
-Algebra 2/Trig
-Oceanography
-Honors Civics
-Intro to Marketing 1
The differences in challenge are apparent simply from the senior schedule, but as we consider Jane’s overall curriculum, we see an even wider gap between the two students: Jane has taken all College-Prep level English courses, while Sarah completed all four years at the Honors or AP level. Jane has only 3 years of a foreign language (French, in this case), and opts not to continue with French 4 senior year (while Sarah has taken on an AP Spanish class in her 5th year of study, having completed Spanish 1 in 8th grade). Finally, Jane has taken a science curriculum of Physical Science, Biology, Anatomy, and concludes with Oceanography senior year, meaning two important lab sciences, Chemistry and Physics, have been left out. Clearly, we have students who have taken on two vastly different levels of academic challenge during their high school careers.
One other note: Context is a very important word in our office while reviewing applications, especially in regard to students’ curriculums. Our example applicant (Sarah) has taken on a 5th year of language at the AP level, but a student would never be penalized for not taking such a course if his or her high school doesn’t offer it. At the high school I attended, there are no AP courses offered in foreign language, so a student applying from there would never be penalized for not taking an AP Spanish class. All strength of curriculum determinations are made in the context of the student’s high school environment (what is available to that student at his or her high school). When we receive a high school transcript, we also will receive a profile from that high school which will spell out for us the courses that are available in that school—and then we will take a look at the student’s transcript, now knowing what is offered at the school and comparing that to what the student has chosen to take. (And those last couple of sentences aren't the best ones that this English major has ever written, but I think you get the point...)
Got all that? I’ll give you some time to digest. More to come this weekend!
Hi again! As we wind down the Early Action reading season, it's time to take a very close look at an application for admission. In the next few postings, I will take you step-by-step through an application as I read it to give you a sense of what we are taking a look at on this side of the desk. Here we go...
Before we even start to read the application itself, we take a close look at the student's high school academic performance, and put the student's grade point average onto our own Providence College unweighted 4.0 scale. Why do we do this? Well, each year we receive applications from thousands of different high schools, and it feels like there are thousands of different grading scales out there. We see everything, from 4.0 scales to 5.0 scales to 100-point scales, to high schools that do not calculate GPAs. I remember one application from a couple years back where the high school had a 13-point scale and the student had an 11.28 GPA. What does that 11.28 mean in the context of our review process and in comparison to all of the other applicants we are looking at? Good question. That's why we recalculate! When we move into our Committee on Admission process, where our entire counseling staff is gathered together to make the final decisions on around 2,500 applications, it is helpful if we are able to look at these students on the same "playing field" -- or grading scale, so all students (including the one with an 11.28) have their GPAs converted to our PC scale.
We’ll call our example applicant “Sarah Student,��? and begin with our “recalcing��? process. In recalculating her GPA, I am only counting the grades she has received in core academic courses: the areas of English, Math, Natural Science, Social Science (History), and Foreign Language. We also count any other "non-core" courses that are taken at the Honors or Advanced Placement level, and this particular student has an AP Art Studio course and an Honors Business elective that I'll include in the GPA recalculation...
Along with being able to consider all applicants on the same grading scale to make it a lot easier for our counseling staff, another reason that we recalculate the GPA is so that we get a true sense of how each student has performed in his or her academic courses-- so, we are not counting classes that your high school might include in your GPA, such as Physical Education, Health, and "Basket Weaving 101." This way, the GPAs we consider are not inflated by non-academic courses. As an aside, if you attend a religiously-affiliated high school, we will count your Theology/Religion courses in the recalculated PC GPA.
Our example applicant, Sarah, has done very well in high school and has an unweighted PC GPA of a 3.61. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly -- the recalculated GPA we use is on an unweighted scale, and the reason for this is, again, because there are SO many different weighting scales out there. At some high schools, a student might get 2 extra credit points for taking an AP course... at another high school, a student might receive 5 extra points... at my own high school, there is no extra weight given to AP level courses. So, we take the weight out of the GPA in order to (again) put every applicant on the same playing field. But don't panic... the "weight" gets put back in to every application in our "strength of curriculum rating." And we NEVER look at your GPA without also looking at your courses. We'll get more into curriculum in tomorrow’s posting! I’ll meet you right here then!
Yes, my Thanksgiving wishes are a little late... But I hope that you and your family had a great Thanksgiving weekend anyway! If you read Kaitlin's blog, she posted today that she has to spend the rest of her weekend doing homework... Kaitlin, I feel your pain -- I have a busy couple of days ahead of me, too... not doing homework, but reading applications. Early next week, I will take all of you, my loyal blog readers, on a step-by-step journey through an application file, to show you specifically what admission counselors are looking at and looking for as we review applications. Stay tuned... and enjoy your leftovers!
The Providence College men's basketball team is off to a fast start, with a record of 2-0 after a 67-51 upset win over #18 Arkansas at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off last night. The Friars will face 3-0 Miami in the tournament championship on Sunday night. Let's hope they keep the strong start going!
Remember back in September when I promised to take you through the new Concannon Fitness Center? Well, better late than never, right? We are incredibly excited about the new facility, and our photographer managed to sneak in when there weren't too many people around. Enjoy the tour...
From a distance, beyond the shadows-- it's a remarkable facility. Let's take a closer look...
And now, time for a peek inside...
...through the windows! OK, now we can REALLY go inside...
This is the new glass atrium connecting three buildings; Slavin Center, Alumni Hall, and Peterson Recreation Center; to the new Fitness Center:
 
Now, let's move inside the Fitness Center itself...
 
Here's the view looking down on the Friar Field Hockey and Lacrosse Field from the new press box:
And, finally, looking down from the upper level...
There you have it! The virtual, online blog tour of the new Concannon Fitness Center. It looks even better in person, so if you haven't been to campus since the new facility opened, we really encourage you to come back and see it!
And in case you were wondering, yes, these chairs were all full this morning...
 
Maybe we need a larger reception area...?
Our student volunteer groups -- the Admission Ambassadors and Friars Club -- were outstanding in greeting hundreds of campus visitors this weekend... Thanks to both groups for all that you did and all that you do EVERY weekend!
Indeed... While I was reading applications today, I came across three of my favorite spelling/word choice mistakes:
1. "Honor Role" (should be "Honor Roll")
2. "Guidance Councilor" (should be "Counselor")
3. "Captian" (should be "Captain")
Just a reminder: Spelling and grammar do count in your college application...
I remember saying (many times, in fact) when I was on the road this fall that the Early Action deadline of November 1 "comes up very quickly." And it did. The counseling staff leaves the office to begin travel season in early September and in the blink of an eye, here we are on November 7, beginning to review Early Action applications...
Last Friday, the entire counseling staff (minus one travel-weary member who was still on the west coast visiting high schools!) met for about four hours to talk about the application review process. At this annual "reading meeting," we discuss the current applicant pool and what we will be looking for as we review applications this year. Now, because today is only November 7 and the EA deadline was November 1 (and because MANY students get their applications into our office JUST in time!), we do not yet have all of the applications entered into our computer system, so I can't give you an exact count. What I can tell you is that we are pretty much in the same neighborhood as we were last year at Early Action -- last year we had approximately 3,200 applications EA and we expect to be at about that number again this year...
We have had lots of phone calls and e-mails from students (and parents) checking to make sure that their applications had arrived and seeing if they were complete. Tough questions to answer with the amount of transcripts, recommendations, and other supplemental materials that continue to arrive each day (we affectionately call all of these supporting credentials "loose pieces"-- and believe me, there are TONS of them here). So, if you are wondering if your history teacher has sent in her recommendation yet, I would ask you to please be patient... Once we have all of our applications and the aforementioned "pieces" entered into our computer system, we will be sending all EA applicants an e-mail updating them on the status of their application file (or in other words, if any pieces of the application are still missing!). This e-mail will likely be sent out in early December... so don't worry, we will let you know if anything is missing!!
When will decision letters go out? That is the other popular question of late... At this point, all I can tell you is sometime before January 1. The exact date will depend on the total number of EA applications and our Committee on Admission meeting schedule in early December. I will be able to give you a more concrete date as we move along in the process...
OK, that is enough writing for now... time to do some reading (of applications, that is!). More details from the "reading meeting" and more specifics on the review process to come... Stay tuned!
*Scott
We have reached the Early Action (EA) Deadline! Today, November 1, is our EA postmark deadline, meaning that all applications to be considered in the EA review must be postmarked by today. If you do not have your application ready yet, please do not panic -- our Regular Decision deadline is still a little further off (January 15), and there is NO competitive advantage to applying Early Action to PC.
If you have applied EA, you can expect to receive a decision letter back from our office sometime before January 1. Our Early Action process is non-binding, so if you are accepted EA you will have until the national reply date of May 1 to let us know if you want to attend PC. As we move through the EA process, I will be able to give you a more specific date range as to when decision letters will be released. Please stay tuned right here throughout the process for updates!
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