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Hi everybody! I hope you are enjoying your Christmas break! A quick update for you: Our Liberal Arts Honors Program/merit scholarship award letters will be mailed out tomorrow. Have a great weekend - and Happy New Year!
Friars 101 - Florida State Seminoles 95
PC improves to 8-3! Next up: St. Peter's College on 12/31.
Thank you again to everyone who has posted comments and also e-mailed me off of the site. I appreciate your comments and questions and continue to encourage you to keep them coming (and also be patient - I will get back to you as soon as I can but there are a LOT of questions coming in each day... many of which require a personal response to the sender that is not posted on the blog).
As we move forward, I want to again congratulate all of the students who were accepted Early Action... This was our strongest EA applicant pool ever and we were amazed at the academic depth and personal contributions of so many of our applicants. Here's what we saw as we went through the review process:
VERY strong high school academic performance. Generally speaking, the students we invited EA had taken an extremely rigorous high school courseload, consisting of 4 years of those 5 core academic subjects we've been talking about all along. In addition, most students who were accepted had taken on a very high level of academic challenge throughout high school - predominantly honors/accelerated-level curriculums in the context of what their high schools offered. Many students finished out their junior and senior years by taking on AP level coursework as well.
Now, taking on the strong courses is one thing, but for a student to really be competitive in our EA review, they had to achieve in those classes as well. The average GPA for an invited EA student was an A-minus (on an unweighted scale -- so, in other words, the student took on those honors/AP level courses and achieved at least at the A-minus level throughout high school). The average English-course GPA was also an A-minus also in an Honors/AP level English curriculum. (Remember, as a liberal arts institution, a student's English performance is very important to us because even if you're a science major, you will be taking our core curriculum classes and writing essays and papers... To be successful in our curriculum here at PC, a student needs to be strong in English...)
Believe it or not, more students than we had spaces to invite had taken on a very strong curriculum and achieved at or near that A-minus average throughout high school, and so the "subjective" factors were also incredibly important for us to make these decisions. (Hey, it seems like I've written all of this before on this very blog... I wasn't kidding back when I told you what we looked at in an application!) ... Dedicated involvement, leadership, commitment to activities or part-time jobs... These were qualities that many of the students we invited (and frankly, many of the students we were unable to invite) possessed. Also, remember when I talked about the importance of the essay and PC supplemental statement? Yeah, I wasn't kidding then either... These pieces also played important roles in the decision-making process and really could help a student stand out from a lot of others who looked very similar academically.
We have been receiving a lot of questions from invited EA students about the Liberal Arts Honors Program and merit scholarships. (As I've mentioned before, all merit scholarships that we award are tied directly to the Honors Program - any student invited into the LAH Program will receive a merit scholarship, any student who is not selected for the Honors Program will not receive a scholarship). Liberal Arts Honors Program invitations will be mailed to students soon... I'll be able to give more information as to specifics as we get closer to January 1. Please do not call our office asking if you have received a merit scholarship ... again, these decisions are released through the mail and those students who have been selected for the Honors Program will hear by early January.
It's the Friday before one of my favorite holidays, so I will be headed off for my own little Christmas vacation, meaning you won't be hearing from me for a bit. I wish all of you and your families a very Merry Christmas and hope you'll be able to take some time off from school/homework/work and relax, recharge, and be ready for a productive 2008.
Thanks again for reading my blog and our students' blogs over the past few months! I will talk to you all soon!
Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
*Scott
Questions about the Early Action review process? Interested in what questions other people are asking? Click on the "Comments" link in the bottom right corner of each of my entries to post your own questions, see others' questions, and find my answers to these questions. Thanks to everybody who has posted questions... feel free to keep them coming!
*Scott
Hi again, everybody... As you already know if you've been following along here, our decision letters have been mailed and are making their way to you via the US Postal Service. I have mentioned this before, but I want to reiterate that decisions are only released through the mail. Decisions will NOT be e-mailed to applicants...
We've also had some EA applicants asking if decisions will be available online at any point, and the answer to that question is no, they will not be. All decisions are released via letter in the mail and that is the only way we make them available (please do not call our office-- it is school policy not to give out decisions over the phone). I know this makes a little bit of an additional wait but we want to make sure that students are receiving their decisions at (relatively) the same time via the mail.
As you may recall from earlier blogs, the Early Action applicant pool consisted of just under 3,200 applications (almost exactly the same number we received last year at EA). The EA pool this year was even stronger than last year's pool-- full of incredibly bright, involved, and prepared students who we can see being very successful at the college level. After reviewing all of these students' applications, we reach the following dilemma: How many students can we take Early Action, while still leaving an appropriate number of spaces for the "incredibly bright, involved, and prepared students" who will apply in January at our Regular Decision deadline? Let's talk a little bit about that...
It's a fine line we walk each year with Early Action, because we have (literally) thousands of qualified candidates who apply EA but also have (1) under 1,000 spaces in our freshman class and (2) (literally) thousands more who will be applying Regular Decision (last year, 6,500 students applied Regular!). Therefore, we have to balance these two things:
First, we want to accept as many deserving students as we can EA, because they have earned that invitation to Providence College. Second, we have to protect the deserving students still to come in our Regular Decision pool, making sure that there is still room in the freshman class for these qualified students. So, we come to a number of EA invites that we feel is fair to both of these groups... and this year, that number was just over 1,600 acceptances - what we feel is a good balance that rewards the deserving students who applied EA while not penalizing the students who choose to apply at Regular (there will still be spaces available to those qualified applicants!). And remember, each year we accept more than the 975 or so we have space for in the freshman class knowing that not every student will in turn "accept us" - they'll have a lot of great schools to choose from!
But are there more than the 1,600+ students we have accepted that we can see being great fits to PC (both in and out of the classroom)? Yes, there are - like I said, we had an incredibly strong applicant pool. There are many students who are just a notch below the top of our pool (the students we invited) who will be receiving defer letters in the mail... And it is important to note here that when we defer a student EA, it is because we do see them as being competitive in our Regular Decision review process - in other words, a defer should not be interpreted as a "soft deny." For students who are deferred, their applications will be considered again during the Regular Decision review process in the context of our entire applicant pool.
In addition to inviting and deferring students EA, we also do deny some students at Early - this is a final decision and students who receive an EA deny cannot apply again during Regular Decision. The reason we deny students at Early is because our review processes are very similar at Early and Regular... and therefore, if a student is clearly not competitive in our EA pool, we know that he/she will not be competitive in our Regular Decision pool either. So, instead of deferring that student knowing that we will eventually deny them in March, we feel it is better for the student to learn the decision in December so he/she can move on to other college options.
SO much more to talk about... I'll meet you right here!
Decision letters have made their way to the post office (a little earlier than the projected Tuesday afternoon release)...
 
We'll recap the EA applicant pool shortly... stay tuned...
I have one word for today in Providence, RI: SNOW! Supposedly 10-12 inches of the wintry white stuff is on the way this afternoon and tonight! For now, back to the admission process...
We have completed our Committee on Admission meetings and as we finalize all of our Early Action decisions, I can tell you that at this point, it looks like our decision letters will be sent out on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 18.
Stay tuned for more updates! And drive safely if you are in the path of this New England winter storm!
Classes have ended for the fall semester here at PC... our students are busy taking their final exams and the admission staff is continuing our Committee on Admission meetings making final decisions on EA applicants. I have two things to pass along to you before I head back to our meetings:
1. If you have posted a comment/question on my blog, you can find my answer by clicking on the "Comments" link at the bottom of the entry (where you originally posted it!). I promise to get to all of your questions (eventually) so please continue to check for updates!
2. My fellow blogger Liz (one of our student bloggers) had a very interesting posting earlier this week about "prestige" as a factor (or non-factor) in choosing the right college for you. If you haven't read her posting, please check it out... it's very well done!
A little "non-admission" PC news to fit in around reading applications:
The second phase of the 3-year, $80 million renovation project to the Dunkin' Donuts Center, the downtown Providence home court of the PC men's basketball team, is complete! Phase 3 of the renovations will take place next summer to be ready in time for the opening of the 2008-09 season. Click here for more information about the exciting developments at "The Dunk."
I hope that my postings over the past week have given you some insight into how we review an application at PC. In addition to everything I have mentioned so far, we also take a close look at a student's PC Supplemental Form and additional PC-specific statement. While we get a lot of very pertinent information from the Common Application, we are also very interested in your specific match and fit to us at Providence College. The Supplemental Form asks PC-specific questions, obviously, that help us to get a sense of your "PC fit." As with the Common Application essay, we hope that you have taken the appropriate time and put the appropriate effort into your PC supplemental essay to give us a sense of why you think Providence is the right fit for you.
Our sample applicant, Sarah Student, has done a very nice job with her PC Supplemental Essay, talking about her interest in a liberal arts curriculum (and making some nice connections between our core curriculum here at PC and some of the courses she's taken at the high school level), her interest in continuing to be involved in community service at PC, and her very positive campus visit, which was a major reason for her interest in PC.
After completing my review of Sarah's application, I decided to recommend a decision of "invite" for her, as someone who I see as a very strong academic and personal fit to Providence College. Along with stating my decision on our Applicant Worksheet, I also must state my reasoning behind it because, although Sarah's application has received a very thorough read from me, the review process for her application file is far from over. As I have stated many times in this blog, all applications receive multiple reads in our process, and many of them make their way to our Committee on Admission, where all 15 of our admission counselors have a vote in the final decision. So, Sarah's application moves on to a second (and possibly a third) reader, who can agree with my decision or recommend a different outcome. For the students who fall in the middle of our applicant pool (i.e. the students who are not a clear-cut "invite" or "deny"), our Committee on Admission meetings allow their stories to be heard by our entire counseling staff...
Our Early Action Committee meetings have started this week, and we are currently in the midst of talking about hundreds of really outstanding students (making for some very tough decisions!). More to come soon! Stay tuned!
Let's talk a little bit today about the Common Application Essay... One of the myths out there about the college admission process is that admission counselors don't read the essays. Well, I can only speak for us here at PC, but I can promise you that we read every word of every essay... multiple times by multiple people. (So I hope you spent some time on it!)...
There are six essay questions on the Common Application, and we don't have a preference as to which one you choose. Question #6 is "Topic of Your Choice," so you have the freedom to write about whatever you want (and we encourage you to do so!). Our example applicant, Sarah Student, went this direction and wrote her essay about how her older brother was very well-known (read: popular, well-liked) at her high school and she had to work to establish her own identity during her four years. She has done a pretty good job with this essay- it's interesting to read, it has some humor in it, and it's well-written. Remember, we received 3,200 applications at our Early Action deadline, so we are reading A LOT of essays... and well-written ones certainly leave a positive and lasting impression on us!
We use the application essay as a way to get to know you better on the personal level. Since personal interviews are not offered here at PC, the essay becomes the best way for us to find out what you are passionate about, what issues are important to you, and it helps us to get a sense of your personality (if you allow that personality of yours to shine through in your writing!). The essay is a way for us to move beyond the "numbers" -- your GPA, class rank, SAT/ACT scores -- and really get a sense of who you are.
If you are a junior or a senior who hasn't applied yet, and you choose to answer one of the first 5 essay questions (in other words, you don't choose the "Topic of your Choice" prompt), please remember to answer the whole question: specifically, the part that reads, "and its impact on you" ... or "and its importance to you." I can't tell you how many essays we receive each year that are very nice and tell us a whole lot about a student's grandfather... but never get around to explaining how all of the great things the grandfather did impacted the student. Remember, YOU are applying to college, not your grandfather... The essay is one place where we really want you to talk about yourself, and give us the opportunity to get to know you better.
We'll continue through the application process as the week goes on... Talk to you soon!
As promised, we're going to dive right into the application file today! If you missed the previous 3 postings, I suggest that you go read them first and then come back to this one to make sure you are up to speed! In my next few postings, we will read through an application file together... so, without further ado, let's get started!
Obviously, we are going to take a close look at the Common Application itself, which gives us the basic biographical information on our applicant. I always take a close look at the Extracurricular Activities section at the bottom of page 3, and our applicant example, "Sarah Student" has been involved in a number of different areas: she is a two-sport varsity athlete and captain, she has participated in a number of community service projects, and she is an Executive Board member of her Student Council. One thing that I really like about Sarah is that she followed the instructions on the application; she has filled out this extracurricular section (as the Common Application instructions say to do, in bold letters) even though she has attached a separate activity sheet/resume. Thanks, Sarah, for following instructions! That gets some points in my book!
When we are looking at extracurricular involvement, please understand that we are not looking for a laundry list of every activity that a student has been involved with since kindergarten. We're not looking for "joiners" -- students who were not involved in any clubs/organizations freshman and sophomore years but joined 10 different clubs as a junior because "it looks good on college applications." What we would much rather see is dedication and commitment to activities, rather than signing up for a bunch of groups but not really being involved in any of them. So if you have not yet applied to PC, please don't feel like you have to fill up every activity line available on the Common App... If you have 3 activities that you have been committed to, taken on leadership roles in, want to continue to be involved with in college... that means much more than the aforementioned long lists of clubs with little true involvement. One other note: sometimes, students are very involved with things outside of their high schools-- many students have after-school jobs, volunteer at their churches, or have to take care of younger siblings until their parents get home from work. Make sure to include all of these "out-of school" activities on your application as well-- they are also very important for us to know about! We certainly have a lot of respect for students who do have part-time jobs during the school year, and also understand that having a job or babysitting younger siblings often limits the time a student can be involved in high school activities. So let us know what you are doing outside of the classroom!!
Tomorrow, we'll continue to read through an application, and talk about some of the other pieces of the application we are looking at. See you then!
So... After completing the recalculation process, we have to be ready to read the application, right? (all that and we’re just starting to read now??)… Each application file in our office contains a student’s Common Application, PC Supplemental Form, and an assorted number of additional credentials: the high school transcript, school report form, high school profile, guidance counselor and teacher recommendations, activity sheet, Common Application essay, PC Supplemental essay, and sometimes even a few other additional pieces. Which begs the question—where do I start?
Well for me, the first step after recalculating is completed is to take a close look at the “Applicant Data Sheet,��? which is a worksheet in each file that lists the applicant’s information (address, high school, SAT scores if submitted, etc…) and is also the place where each counselor who reads the file makes their notes and enters their decision. I proofread that sheet to make sure that all of the information we have in our database is correct (we wouldn’t want to send out an acceptance letter with a student’s name spelled incorrectly!). Now, finally, we’re going to start reading (really… I promise… tomorrow… hang on...)
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