Welcome to June 2008! Wow. That came fast, didn't it? The arrival of the summer months brings a slightly more relaxed atmosphere in the Office of Admission, but also a time of great importance for the upcoming academic year. The 2007-08 school year has come to a close, and if you have been along for the ride on this blog since the end of last summer, you've seen the variety of different responsibilities that admission counselors have throughout the year. We've moved from the fall travel season to application review to the spring campus programming season... and now we have reached the summer months. During the summer, we close the book on the 2007-08 year and spend a great deal of time planning for the 2008-09 academic year. And that brings us to our annual admission staff retreat, which took place last week...

Each year near the end of May, all of our admission counselors attend a three-day retreat, during which we assess the previous year and then turn the page, so to speak, and create the goals for the new admission cycle that is about to begin. This retreat is a nice opportunity for each counselor to share his or her thoughts on the previous year and ideas and goals for the upcoming year with the rest of the staff. New initatives are created here (new ideas for our office publications and campus programming opportunities, for example) and each counselor comes away with a group of projects to complete during the summer so that the plans are in place for the fall. The planning that takes place during the summer months is vital for the rest of the year to run smoothly - so that's what I will be spending a lot of time doing this summer!

Along with my travel and application responsibilities, I also serve as the co-coordinator of our student Ambassador program, work with our athletic recruits, serve as the liaison to the Humanities departments on campus, and am part of the electronic communication task force (which means I spend a lot of time writing, editing, and updating the admission pages of our website). I will spend time this summer focusing on each of these areas, in addition to planning my fall travel schedule. I also will have the opportunity to attend some workshops and conferences this summer with other college admission professionals - these programs give us a sense of what is going on in the admission world and at other colleges and universities across the country.

So, there you have it! Oh, and along with the planning and assessment that takes place, we'll also be welcoming LOTS of campus visitors this summer - visit opportunities begin next week! I'll fill you in on more specifics on all of the above as we move through the summer!