The fall travel season for the PC Admission staff is complete (for most of us, at least!)... and we now have to quickly shift gears and move into "reading mode." That's right, our Early Action application postmark deadline is tomorrow (November 1), and there are definitely a lot of applications here in our office waiting to be read! While the admission counselors have been traveling throughout the country for the past two months, our operations staff has been very busy handling all of the applications that have come into our office and preparing them for the counseling staff to begin reading. How many do we have in the Early Action pool? We aren't quite sure yet, as hundreds of applications continue to arrive each day. I'll pass on more specific numbers as soon as we know...

If you have applied Early Action (or are planning to send in your EA application in the next 24 hours!), please be aware that we will be letting you know if your application is complete by the end of November. We are currently receiving thousands of applications, teacher recommendations, high school transcripts, etc. and when all of these pieces are matched up and entered into our computer system, it will be easy for us to let you know if you are missing anything from your application. So again, please don't worry if you don't hear anything from us about your application until the end of the month... we'll get there and will definitely let you know if anything is missing!

I'll write a lot more about the Early Action process over the next month or so but please feel free to post any questions you may have!

Very vague title, huh? That's to draw you in and make you want to keep reading (I was an English major, you know... It's one of those English major tricks!). Anyway, the question in the title is referring to the number of colleges to which a high school senior is applying. How many colleges/universities should you apply to? And how many is too many?

I bring up this question for all of you who will be applying regular decision, and the reason I bring it up is because we have had the question asked multiple times at our campus information sessions in the past couple of weeks. As the college admission process gets more and more competitive across the board, students are applying to more and more schools to make sure they are accepted "somewhere." Unfortunately, that only compounds the issue, as students apply to more schools, schools get more applications, it becomes more difficult to gain admission to these schools, and the circle keeps going and going and going...

(Way) back when I was applying to colleges during the 1999-2000 school year, I applied to five schools, having a clear top choice (Providence College! Who would've guessed it!??!?) and three other schools that I could definitely see myself attending. The last school I applied to was definitely more of a "safe choice" for me, but it did have some of the same criteria I was looking for in the top 4 schools I applied to (such as being in the Northeast... my parents would've missed me too much if I went to the West Coast). Now, I know you'll say that 2000 was a much simplier time and the competition to gain admission to certain colleges wasn't as intense (although some of my high school classmates would beg to differ!), but the majority of my classmates were applying to 6-8 schools at the most...

Fast-forward to the present: The other day, one of my colleagues spoke to a mom whose son is applying to 16 colleges. I spoke with a guidance counselor that has a student who is applying to 27. Twenty-seven?!?? THAT is too many. Can that student really see himself enrolling and spending four years at ALL 27 different places he's applying? I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that he can't... And by the way, if you're looking for my humble opinion (which you are, since you're reading this blog!!), 16 is far too many schools to be applying to as well.

I'm not here to tell you that I think there should be a limit on the number of schools a student should be able to apply to. I am also not here to say that since I applied to five colleges, you should apply to five colleges. It did work for me, but I understand that everyone has their own unique college search experience. What I am asking you to do is to attempt to narrow down the list of schools you are going to apply to. With so many schools on the Common Application, it's now so easy to just press a button and apply to a school you may have never even considered. (of course there is the matter of the application fee that might help to keep that number down... in case you were wondering, applying to 27 schools with an average application fee of $60 = over $1,600! That's just to apply!)... I understand that students are applying to large numbers of schools because they want to cover themselves and make sure they receive at least one acceptance letter, but the best way to make that happen is by narrowing down your choices and applying to the RIGHT schools!

Visit campuses, talk to students, talk to admission counselors, and find out all you can about those 27 different schools on your list. (Believe me, if you visit 27 different campuses, your list will start to become smaller!). Understand the admission review process at each of the colleges on your list and - this is the tough part - be realistic about your choices. It's perfectly fine to have what is commonly called a "reach" school, a place that you are very interested in but you (and your guidance counselor) are not sure about your academic fit to that institution. But they shouldn't all be reach schools. Admission counselors constantly talk about "match" and "fit" to an institution, and those should be words you are using as well. You want to find colleges and universities that are the right fit for you personally, both inside and outside of the classroom, and not fall into the trap of applying somewhere just because 10 of your friends are doing it.

If you were looking for a magic number of schools to apply to, I am going to disappoint you. The purpose of this posting is really to encourage you to narrow down your list of schools as much as possible, focusing on QUALITY (the colleges that truly are the right fit for YOU) rather than QUANTITY (27 schools... see above). Instead of spending hours filling out dozens of applications and supplements and writing essays for 20+ different schools, put that time and effort into the applications for the schools that really are a good fit for you. Spending more time on fewer applications means you'll be making a better presentation of yourself to the colleges you are applying to and I promise you that admission counselors do take note of how the application is presented.

I would love to hear your feedback on this subject, and if you have applied/are planning to apply to double-digit numbers of colleges, I'd be very interested in your reasons for doing it! Please leave your comments and I will respond as soon as I can! Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome to Wednesday!

It's that time of year... we've heard that some colleges and universities have started releasing their decision letters for Early Action/Early Decision. Just a friendly reminder that if you have been accepted to a school Early Decision, you are required to withdraw your applications from all of the other schools you have applied to. This allows those schools to open up a handful of additional spaces for students who really want to attend... so those students thank you!!!

As I mentioned last night, we have an extra long day of committee today... During the afternoon session, we'll be considering students from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Colorado... Then tonight we'll be spending some time "in New York" ... reviewing applications from upstate and then spending much of the evening on Long Island.

Time for a quick lunch... Alumni Cafeteria over in our student center... My favorite lunch spot!!! (I guess that says something for on-campus food! It's good!!! Plus the people who work there are the nicest people you will ever meet!)

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!)

"Back to school" -- three words that strike fear into the hearts of summer fun-loving kids everywhere. Don't worry too much yet-- it's only mid-August so there is still (a little) time before you're headed back to the classroom. But mid-August is an appropriate time to go back to blogging, to get all of you soon-to-be seniors ready for the final stages of your college search and help you soon after move into the college application process.

For those of you who are new to this blog, welcome aboard!! I am one of 15 admission counselors who make our home in the Providence College Office of Admission, and spend our fall semesters meeting students from across the country and throughout the world, as we travel for much of September and October "telling the Providence College story." By the time the winter months roll around and all of your applications have made their way into our office, we have returned from our travels and shift gears into reading and reviewing your applications and shaping the Providence College Class of 2012. The idea behind this blog when I started it last fall was to give prospective families a "behind-the-scenes look" at PC's admission review process, to show you what our admission staff does on a day-to-day basis and to bring you from the beginning (now) to the end (May 2008 for all of the seniors) of the admission cycle.

As you make your way through your senior year, questions will undoubtedly come up about PC specifically and the college admission process in general. At any point during the year, please feel free to post your questions here and I will do my best to give you (and all of the other readers who likely had a similar question!) a timely and accurate answer. Also, please note that if you have specific questions or concerns and would like to speak with an admission counselor directly, our doors are always open and you can feel free to reach the admission counselor responsible for your region of the country (or the world!) at any time by e-mail, by phone, or in person if you happen to be on campus. To find out who the counselor is for your area, please click onto the Contact Our Office page of the Admission website.

Again, welcome to the home of the 2007-2008 PC Admission Blogs! It's just me for the moment, but a new group of student bloggers will be joining me shortly as we work to make the admission process as personal and interactive for you as possible. Stay tuned!

*Scott
8/8/07

I just happened to stumble upon an article written by Jay Mathews from the Washington Post... It's called "Ten Stupid Ways to Ruin Your College Application." It's a good read... I really enjoyed it so I figured I would pass it along!

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!

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

Here we are in early 2008, and we have made the transition from Early Action to our Regular Decision review process. To our seniors who have not yet applied to PC, remember that our Regular Decision application deadline is January 15 (postmarked)... It's approaching quickly!

Have a great weekend!

*Scott

...is arriving in the Office of Admission as we near our Regular Decision deadline of January 15. As many students are now submitting the Common Application online, most of the mail is arriving from high schools - the supporting credentials (transcript, school report, recommendations, etc.) required to complete a student's application. Kudos to our staff who continue to work wonders opening the mail and matching these additional pieces to each student's application. On that note, if you have submitted (or plan to submit) your application for Regular Decision review, we will be letting all students know in late February if their applications are complete. Please do not call our office to ask if your teacher's letter of recommendation has arrived - with the volume of mail coming in, it is incredibly difficult for us to answer all of those questions at this point in the process. Thanks!

*Scott

Procrastinators, your time has come... It is January 15, our Regular Decision application deadline here at PC. All freshman applications for admission must be either postmarked by today or submitted online today via the Common Application website.

Ahhh the college application essay... nothing brings about writer's block quite like this, right? This week, we're going to spend some time talking about the essay, and hopefully make it a little less intimidating...

While the essay is many students' least favorite part of the application, it is actually the favorite part for many admission counselors (not less intimidating yet? Hang on...). Why is that? Well, the essay is the one piece of the application that you have complete control over at the moment you're writing it, and you have the opportunity to let your personality shine through. As an admission counselor, I really want to get to know YOU - to move beyond the "numbers" part of your application and get a sense of what's important to you, and what you are passionate about.

So, let's begin with the college essay topic - what should you write about? First of all, PC is a member of the Common Application group, and you have six different essay questions to choose from (and the last one is "topic of your choice" - so you can write about whatever you so choose). Unfortunately, I am not going to give you a specific answer here... and that's because there isn't one. There is no specific subject or topic we're looking for as admission counselors... we have no preference as to which common app. question you answer or if you choose your own topic... simply put, there is no "magic formula" to writing the perfect college admission essay. The best essays that we read each year are personal - in other words, when we have finished reading the 500-word, two page double-spaced essay, we know something more about the student and maybe even have a sense of that student's personality.

In choosing a topic, think about the people, places, and things that are important to YOU. You should not try to pick a topic that you think a college admission counselor would like to read about (I don't know what that topic would be - and I AM an admission counselor!). Instead, choose something you feel comfortable writing about and you feel will show us who you are as a person. As I mentioned above, the essay helps admission counselors to move beyond the "numbers" of your application (such as your GPA, class rank, and SAT/ACT scores) and gives us the opportunity to get to know the "real you" (cliched, I know... but also true!).

That should at least get you started - I'll let you digest that, with more to come on the essay later this week!

A few more things to keep in mind when writing your college essay:

*Write the essay about YOU! No matter which essay question you choose from the Common Application, it is important that your essay shows the admission staff who you are, and that when we put your essay down, we have a better sense of what is important to you, what you are passionate about, and hopefully even a sense of your personality. Each year, we receive essays from students about a certain topic that are well-written, but that don't tell us anything about the student. Here's an example: a student uses essay prompt #3, and writes his essay about his grandfather, and all of the wonderful things his grandfather did during his life. But when we reach the end of the essay, the student hasn't brought the essay back around to how his grandfather influenced him. This essay has shown us a great picture of Grandpa Charlie, but Grandpa's not applying to Providence College. Here's the actual essay question: "Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence." No matter which essay topic you decide upon, don't forget the part of the question about your topic's impact or influence on you - that's what admission counselors want to read about!

*Spelling and grammar count! In our office, we refer to the application essay as "the first college assignment." That's important to keep in mind when you are writing it - make sure that you are spelling words correctly, capitalizing letters at the beginning of sentences, and using proper punctuation. As a liberal arts college, your writing ability is an important consideration in the application review process for us. Even if you're not an English major, you will be writing essays as part of our core curriculum and specifically the Development of Western Civilization program, and it's important that we see strong writing in your college essay.

*Remember, your college essay is a formal piece of writing! In other words, you are not writing an e-mail, an instant message, or posting on your friend's Facebook wall. The application essay should be written like you would write an essay for your high school English class - to put it simply, it should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

*Don't mention other colleges or universities! This one's self-explanatory, and seemingly an easy mistake not to make - but it happens all the time. A student wants to personalize each essay to the seven different schools he or she is applying to... and forgets to change the school in each of the essays. Oops.

*Have your essay proofread! Your computer spell-checker isn't going to catch everything. Have a teacher, a counselor, your parents, or your friends read your essay over to catch any little mistakes you may have in there. And read it over yourself, too! Don't send the essay without reading it from beginning to end yourself!

*Start the essay early! If you haven't already started at least a rough draft of your essay, please take some time to do that before you head back to school this fall. It's a lot easier to write without the added pressure of an approaching application deadline.

Still have questions about writing your essay? Feel free to post them in the Comments section- and I'll do my best to get you the answers. Good luck with your writing!

As you get ready to head back to school for your senior year, now is a great time to start thinking about which teachers you'd like to have write your letters of recommendation, if you haven't done so already...

Recommendations are an important part of the college application, and in the Office of Admission, we use recommendations to get a sense of your academic strengths and weaknesses that might not show up on your transcript, and also to get a sense of things like your work ethic, your attitude, your presentation skills, and even your personality. And that means that you shoould think carefully about who you want to ask to write your letters of recommendation.

So, who should you choose? Firstly, you want to ask teachers who know you well - they will obviously do a better job of conveying who you are in their letters of recommendation than teachers who don't know you very well. These might include teachers you have had in the classroom multiple times - a history teacher who taught your sophomore class and is now teaching your senior class, for example. They also could be teachers you have had in multiple settings (both inside and outside of the classroom) - your English teacher who is also your student newspaper advisor or your math teacher who is also your soccer coach. These teachers have seen you progress academically, and also know you as more than just a student inside of the classroom because they have worked with you as a coach, advisor, or mentor.

One other thing to keep in mind: the teacher who you received the best grades from is not necessarily the teacher you will receive the best letter of recommendation from. Let me give you an example...

A student who received a C+ in his Pre Calculus class junior year might not think that teacher would be the best to write a recommendation for him. But, even though that C+ might be the lowest grade on his transcript, it might also be the class he worked the hardest in - he really worked to bring his grade up from even lower than a C+ during the 1st quarter to the B/B- level during the second semester of the year. The student attended all of the teacher's extra help sessions, completed additional assignments, went to tutoring, and really worked during the year to improve his grade, even though Pre Calc wasn't his strongest subject. That Pre Calculus teacher could write a fantastic recommendation about this student's work ethic, drive to improve, and level of responsibility - even though the final grade doesn't necessarily show all of that. Something to keep in mind when you're thinking about who you'd like to write your recommendations...

When you do decide on the teachers you'd like to ask, remember to do so politely! Also, be sure to let them know the deadlines of the colleges you're applying to, and where they should send their recommendations when they have completed them (some high schools will have the guidance or college counseling office collect all of the teacher recommendations for a student and mail them in one packet). Finally, be sure to thank your teachers for taking the time to write recommendations on your behalf - a thank you note is always a nice gesture!

So, you've completed three years of high school, taken on a challenging courseload, and achieved strong grades in the classroom... so it's time to kick back and breeze through senior year, right? Ummm... wrong...

I know, I know... Your parents, your teachers, and your high school counselor have all preached to you about the importance of finishing strong, and continuing to work hard during the senior year. I know you hear it all the time and maybe sometimes it falls on deaf ears.

My advice: listen to your parents, your teachers, and your counselor! Because they're right.

As an admission counselor who personally sees over 1,000 applications per year, who sees transcripts from hundreds of different high schools, and who serves as a member of the Committee on Admission making decisions on who will be (and won't be) invited to PC, believe me when I tell you that senior year can, in many cases, make or break a student's chances of being accepted to PC (or other schools the student may be applying to).

Why is senior year important? Well, first of all, because it's the year that is most fresh in your mind when you will begin your college studies. Therefore, if a student "takes senior year off" in the classroom by taking a light schedule and/or not working to their potential, they are more than a year removed from serious academic work when they arrive on their college campus. College-level work is more intense than high school-level work in general, but when a student has taken the easy way out senior year, they are really putting themselves at a disadvantage for entering the college classroom. By finishing strong in the senior year and continuing to work hard, you will be much more prepared to handle the college workload next fall.

Why else is senior year important? Because of the competitiveness of the college admission process. Colleges and universities across the country continue to see increasingly talented applicant pools for a limited number of spaces in the freshman class. And when an admission committee has to choose from among very similar applicants in the classroom, senior year is often a way to distingush these applicants. We would much rather invite a student to PC who has continued to challenge him or herself and perform at a high level senior year, rather than a student who has let "senioritis" set in during September.

More to come on senior year academics... Come back!

*Scott

I know some of you have already started your senior year, but for those of you who don't start until the first week of September - enjoy your last weekend of summer! Now, for some final thoughts on the senior curriculum...

*Complete a fourth year of all five core academic subjects. Those would be English, Math, Science, History, and Foreign Language. Even if you "don't like Science" - completing that fourth year of study is important.

*Take a legitimate senior science course. Like Physics, for example. Again, even if you aren't going to be a science major, the problem-solving skills you develop in this class can help you out in whatever area you do decide to go into.

*Take that fourth (or fifth) year of foreign language. Yes, this was also part of the first bullet above, but it bears repeating because language is the area where we see the most students decide not to continue with it senior year. I know that the fourth or fifth (if you started language in 8th grade) year of language can be difficult, but you will gain a lot from taking it!

I know I've already said it... a lot... but your senior year curriculum is incredibly important during the admission review process AND to properly prepare you for college-level studies! And, obviously, your performance in the curriculum you take is crucial as well - we want to see you continue to achieve in the classroom!

Best wishes as you begin your senior year!!

Greetings from Pittsfield, Massachusetts! Yes, back in the hometown for a couple of days of high school visits and college fairs. It's fun - I enjoyed asking the students at the Berkshire Community College NEACAC college fair what high school they went to... and then telling them that "St. Joe is a great school." They'd usually give me a strange look (I don't know why - it is a great high school!) until I told them I was from Pittsfield and graduated from St. Joe. So, yeah, there's nothing like visiting the hometown... we call it "Hometown Heroes Day" in our office, when our counselors are visiting their own high schools. That makes absolutely no sense, I know, but you come to this blog for the inside scoop, and there you have it...

Can you believe it's October already? That first semester of senior year flies by... Amazingly, we are less than a month away from our Early Action deadline of November 1. Yeah, that is coming up too quickly for me, too. It's funny because some days it seems like our admission travel season just started - and on other days, it feels like I've been on the road for 3 months, not 3 weeks. I still have a good deal of travel ahead of me, though - from Western Mass to Eastern Mass and from Northern California to Southern California - before I head back to the office to begin reviewing our Early Action applications.

If you are thinking about applying Early Action, I hope that you are moving along with the application at this point (or you are one of the dozens of students who already have submitted their applications to our office!). Completing the application is much easier when you have some time to think about your answers... and it's not as easy if you are just starting to fill out the application on October 31 and want to apply EA the next day...

More to come on the application process as we creep closer to November 1. Until then, I look forward to meeting more of you throughout the states of Massachusetts and California this month!

*Scott
Pittsfield, MA

Hello from Southern California! On the road this week, I have talked with a number of students who have either already applied or are planning to apply Early Action (EA). So, without further ado, here is everything you ever wanted to know (maybe more!) about PC's Early Action process...

*Our Early Action deadline is November 1 (postmarked or submitted online via the Common Application website). Remember, you must submit the Providence College Supplemental Form along with the Common App for your application to be complete. (Also, please remember to check off the Early Action box on the application!!)

*Early Action decision letters will be released by January 1. As we move along in the process, I will pass along more specific dates.

*Early Action at PC is non-binding. So, if you are accepted EA, you will still have until the national reply deadline of May 1 to decide if you want to attend Providence College.

*There is no competitive advantage to applying to PC Early Action. Our admission staff reviews the applications in the same way during our Early Action and Regular Decision processes.

*Students will receive one of three decisions from PC during the Early Action process: (1) Invite, (2) Defer, or (3) Deny. We do deny students at EA, and it is a final decision (a student who is denied admission during the Early Action review cannot reapply during the Regular Decision process). The reason we give these deny decisions is because, again, the review process is consistent from Early to Regular. Therefore, if we have a student in the EA applicant pool who is clearly not competitive academically, we will give the final decision in December, so that the student and his/her family can move on to other college choices (rather than deferring every student who isn't invited at Early Action, and "stringing along" a student who we know will be denied during the Regular Decision process).

*If you want us to see your senior year first semester grades, do not apply Early Action. It's as simple as that... This is the one difference between Early and Regular - while we will see your senior courses if you apply EA, we will not see that first semester performance that we will see if you apply Regular Decision. So, if you are doing well senior year and are really counting on that senior GPA helping your case, you definitely want to wait and apply Regular Decision. And remember, a deny decision at Early Action is a final decision; the student will not be reconsidered during the Regular Decision review process.

*If you aren't ready to apply by November 1, we strongly suggest you wait and apply during the Regular Decision process. For example, if it is Halloween night and you haven't started writing your college essay yet... it is in your best interest to spend the proper amount of time on it and submit your application by our January 15 deadline.

That's a start on our Early Action process - some factual information and a few tips thrown in there as well.

Good luck to the seniors who are currently completing those EA applications - we look forward to reading about all of you soon!

*Scott
Los Angeles, CA

Hi everybody... Our Early Action deadline is quickly approaching - it is this Saturday, November 1. Some housekeeping items for those of you who applied (or are planning to apply) EA:

*After the deadline passes, and our office settles down from the bins of mail and thousands of electronic submissions we've been receiving, we will send out an application checklist to all students who have applied EA. This checklist will let you know if any pieces of your application (essays, recommendations, transcript, etc.) are missing.

*If you took an October SAT/ACT and/or are taking the SAT this Saturday, and want us to consider your scores as part of your Early Action application, October and November scores generally do arrive in time from the College Board to be considered.

*The Early Action Financial Aid deadlines are December 1 for the CSS Profile and February 1 for the FAFSA.

*And, of course, remember that to be considered during the Early Action review, your application (and PC Supplement) must be submitted online via the Common App website or postmarked by Saturday!

Good luck to those of you who have submitted your applications to be reviewed during the Early Action process. Our entire admission staff has arrived back home from the road, and we will be having our annual "reading meeting" on Monday morning, as we get set to review our Early Action applicants!

Come chat with admission counselors (me!!) and current PC students today (11/12) and tomorrow (11/13) at www.collegeweeklive.com. A counselor will be online from 9 AM to 8 PM both days, and current students will be available to chat after 4 PM both days. It's a great way to get any quick PC questions answered!! Hope to chat with you later today or tomorrow!!

*Scott

That would be tomorrow! Seniors, if you want to be considered for the Providence College Class of 2013, your application must be submitted online (via the Common App website) or postmarked by January 15, 2009.

If you are mailing your application, please send it to:

Providence College
Office of Admission
Harkins Hall 222
549 River Avenue
Providence, RI 02918

The January 15 application deadline has come and gone, and here's the timeline for the coming weeks for those of you who applied Regular Decision...

First of all, we need to get all of the applications that have arrived ready for the counseling staff to review. A computer program helps us do that with all of the applications that came in online, through the Common Application, by adding the data you entered on the Common App to our own information management system. For the students who applied by mail, information is entered into our computer system by our operations staff.

Next step: matching additional credentials (we affectionately call them "loose pieces" in our office) to the application. These credentials include the high school transcript, school report, letters of recommendation, etc... anything that needs to be included in your admission file but didn't arrive with the application itself. Actually, this is an ongoing task, as we'll continue to receive updated information over the next month (such as first semester grades sent from high schools) that will need to be added to students' application files.

As applications and pieces are matched up and files are completed, they are distributed to our fifteen admission counselors by geographic territory, so each of us can complete our "first reads." This initial review process is underway, and will take over a month to complete. In mid-to-late February, we will move to our second- and third-read processes, to be sure that every applicant receives a thorough review. Finally, in early March, a number of our applications will go through the committee process. (More on these processes when we get to them!)

Two final notes for today:

1. If you did apply Regular Decision, you will be receiving a letter and e-mail in early February to let you know if we are missing any "pieces" of your application. (Many will say that we have not yet received your mid-year grades - don't panic if yours does, as your high school will send them when they become available).

2. Speaking of mid-year grades, there are a few high schools out there that don't automatically send them to all of the colleges students have applied to. So, if you attend one of those high schools, please make sure to request that your mid-year grades be sent to us as soon as they are available. Thanks!

As we reach mid-February, just a quick reminder to all students who have applied to PC Regular Decision, or were deferred to Regular Decision from the Early Action review:

Please make sure that your high school sends us your midyear grades as soon as they become available. Many high schools will automatically send those grades along to all of the colleges and universities you have applied to, but some high schools only send them upon request. We need your midyear grades in order to complete the review process, so if your high school does only send midyears upon request, please ask your guidance office to send them along to us! Thanks!

Rising seniors, as you really begin to focus your college search this summer, we hope you'll take the opportunity to personally connect with current PC students and admission staff members. How can you do it...?

Visit campus: Always the best way, because in addition to having the opportunity to meet current students and an admission counselor, you can also spend as much time as you'd like on campus. We hope you'll take advantage of the formal visit opportunities offered, including tours and information sessions, but it's equally important to wander around on your own. You can only see so much on a one-hour tour. When the official tour is over, create your own: take a walk through the quad; explore the library; or have lunch in our dining hall and try the food! And talk to students - not just your tour guides, but any other students you encounter on your visit. Current students are the real experts on any college campus you visit!

Instant Messenger: Have a couple of quick questions for an admission counselor? Add LauraAtPC to your AIM Buddy List and IM admission counselor Laura Dodd anytime!

Facebook: Very easy to stay up-to-date on deadlines, visit opportunities, and campus news on the Office of Admission Facebook page (you spend a lot of time on Facebook anyway, right?). Question for an admission counselor? Feel free to post it on our page!

PC Social Network: Coming soon- the Providence College social network for prospective students... Giving you the opportunity to connect with current students and other prospective students. More details July 1!

Contact your admission counselor: Find which counselor will work directly with your application- click onto the Contact Our Office page to see who works with your area, and feel free to drop us an e-mail and introduce yourself!

PC blogs! New student blogs coming late this summer and, of course, always feel free to join the discussion by posting a comment here!

Writing the essay is one of the toughest parts of the college application process for many students, and if you haven't already started thinking about your topic, here's a gentle reminder to get started before the summer ends. Why? Well, nothing brings about writer's block for a high school student quite like the college essay (for most high school students, at least!).

What makes a strong essay? Very generally speaking, it's personal and well-written. As admission counselors reading the essay, we want to learn more about you (that isn't already available to us elsewhere in your application) and we hope to discover that you are a strong writer.

Throughout the coming weeks, our admission counselors will be sharing tips on the college essay on our prospective student network, which you can find here. Have a question about the essay? Feel free to post it in that forum or here on my blog, and we'll be happy to answer it for you!

Also, if you didn't catch it in your e-mail, we invite you to check out the "How Do I Write a Great College Essay?" article that appeared in our July 15 e-news.

Best of luck as you write the college essay, and please don't hesitate to turn to us if we can be of assistance. And to those of you who are already done with your essay... well, you have a few more days to spend on the beach before you head back to school!

It's a question we often receive as we talk with high school seniors in the fall: "Should I apply to PC Early Action or Regular Decision?"

The answer is different depending on the student we are talking to, and as you move forward with the application process, here are a few things to keep in mind about the deadlines...

1. There is no competitive advantage to applying Early Action. It is not easier to get in to PC EA (or Regular Decision, for that matter). We are very consistent in the way we review applications in the Office of Admission from the Early pool to the Regular pool. The only "advantage" to applying Early Action is that you will receive a decision letter sooner than if you apply Regular Decision.

2. We will NOT see your first semester senior year grades if you apply Early Action. This is very important to understand, and should be kept in mind as you decide when to apply. For example, if you are a student who struggled academically junior year, but you've bounced back and you're having a strong senior year so far, we encourage you to wait and apply Regular Decision so we have this new academic information available when we review your application. (Note that we WILL see your senior year course schedule regardless of when you apply!).

3. November 1 (the EA deadline) is approaching quickly. I can't believe it's October 9 already! Make sure you are truly ready to apply Early Action before clicking "Send" ... if it is Halloween night and you still haven't started your college essay or the last week of October and you haven't asked teachers for recommendations, you would be much better served by waiting and applying Regular Decision. You want to make sure that your application is the best representation of you (academically and personally) that it can be!

The Early Action application deadline at PC is November 1. The Regular Decision application deadline is January 15. (Applications need to be either submitted online via the Common App website by these dates or postmarked by the appropriate date if you are using postal mail).

I could've titled this post "Dates & Deadlines," but there's a little more to it than that. Let's start with those important dates to remember, though...

Application Deadlines:
Early Action- November 1
Regular Decision- January 15

Financial Aid Deadlines:
Early Action-
-CSS PROFILE & Business Farm Supplement (if necessary) by December 1
-FAFSA by February 1
Regular Decision-
-CSS PROFILE & Business Farm Supplement (if necessary) by February 1
-FAFSA by February 1

Application checklist:
-Common Application
-Providence College Supplemental Form
-High School Transcript & Secondary School Report
-Letters of Recommendation (counselor & teacher)
-College Essay
-Application Fee
-SAT/ACT scores, if submitting

Helpful Links:
-Class of 2014 Application Guide
-Common App Website
-Download application, supplement, other forms
-Financial Aid web pages

Notification:
-Early Action applicants will receive a decision by early January
-Regular Decision applicants will receive a decision by late March

Good luck to all of you who will be completing your Early Action application this weekend, for our deadline of November 1.

Happy Halloween, too!

*Scott

(Wow, that's a long title...)

Greetings from the busy Office of Admission at PC, where the operations staff is getting all of our Early Action applications ready to review! Today, though, I want to talk a little bit about some new Merit-Based Scholarships that are available to students applying to attend PC next fall.

Here's the scoop: Beginning with students applying for admission to the Class of 2014 (students entering in September, 2010), there are now three tiers of merit-based scholarships for which students may qualify:

1. Liberal Arts Honors Program
2. Academic Scholarships
3. Providence College Friar Scholarships

Students invited into the College's highly selective Liberal Arts Honors Program (find out more about LAH Program) will receive one of three levels of merit scholarship: St. Dominic Scholarship (full tuition excluding room and board); St. Thomas Aquinas (3/4 tuition); or St. Catherine of Siena (1/2 tuition). All of these scholarships are renewable for up to four years as long as students remain active members of the Liberal Arts Honors Program and maintain the required GPA. Merit scholars are typically at the top of their graduating class and have completed the most rigorous program of study possible during their high school career.

The second group are academic-based merit scholarships available to students who have demonstrated superior academic performance during their entire high school career, but were not selected for inclusion in the Liberal Arts Honors Program. These scholarships include the St. Joseph Scholarship ($14,000 annually), the Albertus Magnus Scholarship ($11,000 annually), and the St. Vincent Ferrer Scholarship ($8,000 annually). Students who have achieved consistent A- to A grades throughout high school in all subjects – and have taken a rigorous program of study – will be considered for these awards (note that an A-minus GPA is not a guarantee of a scholarship, but represents the performance required to be in consideration).

Finally, Providence College Friar Scholarships are merit awards intended to recognize high school seniors who not only have demonstrated the academic discipline necessary to succeed in the classroom, but display extraordinary commitment, leadership and responsibility in their extracurricular pursuits. While we do not have a prescription for the type of activity that warrants recognition, it is important to note that serious contributors to their pursuits are more attractive than those who have simply been members of a number of organizations. Students who have academic achievements that earn them admission to Providence College and also demonstrate a true commitment to their out-of-classroom activities will be recognized with awards ranging from $4,000 to $8,000 annually.

More information on these Merit-Based Scholarship opportunities can be found here. Also, you can see the letter sent to parents on October 15, 2009 announcing additional financial assistance availability for students applying to the Class of 2014 here.

As always, should you have questions about merit scholarships or need-based financial aid programs, please don't hesitate to call our office to speak with a counselor: (800) 721-6444.

Now, it's time to begin reviewing Early Action applications! Until next time...