Hello from New Orleans! It is the final week of travel for the PC Admission Staff and one of the most popular questions I have seen this fall is regarding our new test-optional policy. If you haven't heard, students will not be required to submit their SAT/ACT scores to receive full consideration for admission this year (and the next three under PC's four-year test-optional pilot program). So what does the test-optional policy mean for the admission review process this year?

First of all, it's important to realize that standardized test scores have never driven the admission process here at Providence College. Even in past years, when SAT/ACT scores were required, they were always the last piece of the application considered and were never a "make or break factor" in admission decisions. In our admission review, we find that a student's high school academic performance (the combination of their curriculum plus the grades received) is a much better indicator of success at PC than a standardized test score. Therefore, after over a year of study, the test-optional policy was put into place this summer. For more specific information on the policy, please follow this link: www.providence.edu/testoptionalpolicy.

The most popular question we have received regarding the policy--and the toughest for us to answer--is the question: "At what number should I submit my SAT or ACT scores?" Ahhh the magic number... I'll cut right to the chase- I am not going to give you a number in this posting. We really do not have a cutoff line where we discern a "good" SAT score from a "bad" SAT score. The best answer I can offer is this: If a student feels their test scores are an accurate representation of their academic ability, they should feel free to submit the scores. If however, a student feels the score is not representative, the student will not be penalized in the review process if SAT/ACT scores are not submitted.

It is also important to remember that if a student does choose to submit test scores, they will be considered but will not outweigh the high school academic performance.

Hopefully this information helps answer some of your test-optional policy questions (without causing more questions to arise!). The most important thing to remember is that the admission review process at PC is holistic and really focuses on the high school performance-- we want to invite students to PC who have "earned" a space in our freshman class through four years of continued high school success rather than having students "win" a space with one high test score. Please feel free to keep the questions coming!

Well, I said reading season was coming, and has it ever arrived! The counseling staff met for 4 1/2 hours Monday for our annual "reading meeting," the official starting point for the application review process. Our Early Action (EA) deadline of November 1 has come and gone, of course, and we did receive some applications. More than just "some," actually.

Right now we have just about 3,100 Early Action applications in our office... which is up nearly 40% from the 2,200 we received last year at the EA deadline. First off, nobody panic! (That's what the counseling staff has been repeating lately!!). Obviously, it is a considerable increase from last year's number at the Early deadline. The question that immediately surfaced for us today was, "How many students can we accept Early Action while leaving enough remaining spaces in the freshman class for all of the qualified applicants we expect will apply Regular Decision?" The answer to that question...?

Let's start with this: While we are very excited to have so many qualified candidates apply Early Action, we are not about to have the entire class enrolled from the EA pool because we are very aware of the fact that many strong students do wait to apply until the January 15 deadline, and that is perfectly fine. We have always stressed that there is no competitive advantage to applying EA at PC, and that will continue to be the case as we will still have spaces available in the freshman class for our strong Regular Decision applicants! As for those of you who did apply Early Action, we will be passing along decision letters in late December.

A popular question we receive every year about the Early Action review process is: "If I am not accepted Early, is my application automatically moved to the Regular Decision pool?" The short answer is no, applications are not automatically moved to Regular Decision, and the long answer is as follows:

There are three decisions possible on EA apps: (1) INVITE- This is great, obviously, and because at PC our Early Action program is non-binding, students who are accepted EA have until the national reply deadline of May 1 to let us know if they want to enroll. (2) DEFER- We do defer some students to the Regular Decision pool each year, and we do this because we need more information to make an appropriate decision on their application. Most often, this information is in the form of first semester senior year grades; while we will see your senior courses if you have applied Early Action, we will not see your grades and sometimes we do need to wait until your first semester has been completed to make a final decision. (3) DENY- We do deny students EA, and this is a final decision at PC (meaning a student denied Early cannot reapply at the January 15 deadline). The reason we deny students EA is that we do have a consistent review from Early to Regular, and so we know that if a student is not competitive in the Early Action pool, they will not be competitive in the Regular Decision group either. So, we give out the decision up front to give the student and family time to pursue other options.

So that is where we are in the Office of Admission. We are busy organizing files and recalculating grade point averages as we prepare to start reading the 3,100 EA apps. Before I return to the big pile of transcripts on my desk, I also do want to say thank you to Adam and Eileen, the first two (brave!) souls to post questions on this blog... Thank you both for "breaking the ice" and we'll hope that encourages more questions and comments as the "reading season" progresses!

P.S. Congrats to the PC men's soccer team for earning a berth in the 48-team NCAA Tournament for the second straight season! They will take on Hofstra in their first-round game on Friday night!

My first "reading day" is in the books! I read about 25 applications today and from just that small percentage of the Early Action pool, there are a great deal of very strong students out there! In other words, you guys are doing some outstanding work inside of the classroom! Not to mention some amazing things outside of class-- playing in soccer tournaments in Denmark, rebuilding New Orleans with your community service groups, tutoring your classmates in Latin and helping them pass their classes, traveling across the Atlantic to meet your new baby sister that your family has adopted... and the list goes on and on (and today was my first day of reading!). Keep up the good work! It's a short entry today as I have a few more applications waiting for me tonight... I'll talk to you soon!!

Happy Monday (and Veterans Day Observed for those of you who didn't observe it on Friday!). It must be the middle of "reading season," as I spent much of my weekend... in the office! (Although I did sneak out Friday night to take in the Boston Celtics game up at the Garden... Former PC basketball star Ryan Gomes scored 11 points in the Celts loss to the Utah Jazz).

Speaking of athletics and activities, it's great to see so many of our applicants have such dedicated involvement to their sports teams, their community service groups, their student councils, their drama clubs... (I could go on and on!). I have been particularly impressed with the students who are holding down a part-time job during the school year and continuing to do well in the classroom. One application I read yesterday was from a Massachusetts student who works 20 hours per week at a restaurant during the school year-- and at the same time balances that job with a demanding honors-level curriculum that she does very well in. 20 hours is a LOT of time to spend working during the school year, and I have a great deal of respect for all of you who continue to work at your part-time job after the summer ends... I mentioned some of the very unique and exciting experiences that some of our applicants have had (world travel, etc.) in my last posting, but I have to say that commitment to an after-school job or internship is just as impressive. It shows us that a student is responsible, is committed, is willing to work hard... all of which are qualities we love to see in the students we invite to Providence College!

Hope all of you had a great Veterans' Day Weekend! Enjoy your Monday!

Hey everybody! Sorry to be MIA for so long... we are very busy in the office as we finish up our first, second, and third reads of applications and prepare to start our Committee on Admission meetings next week (where our final Early Action decisions will be made). I promise to post again soon!!!

P.S. PC Friars men's basketball team = 5 straight wins! (6-1)

Yes, it's officially that time... Our Committee on Admission meetings (where final admission decisions are made) begin on Monday (we are moving along in the Early Action process!). For a true inside-look behind the scenes in the admission process, check back with me next week... I promise to keep you up to date on the committee happenings!

Have a great weekend!

*Scott

... They officially begin... The entire counseling staff gathers behind the door marked "Meeting In Progress" to review hundreds of applications during one full week of Committee on Admission meetings. This scene was always something that I wondered about when I was applying to colleges: who is behind that door and how are they making the decisions?

We've all seen movies and television shows that feature admission committees made up of ten older, stately, stern-looking gentlemen dressed in suits. There's misconception #1 - we don't wear suits to committee! (Especially when we have weekend sessions; outfits on Saturdays often include jeans, hoodies, baseball caps, and yes, even the occasional pair of pajama pants!). One of the great things about our staff is the variety of different perspectives present in the committee setting. Some counselors have over 20 years in the world of admissions, at different schools all over the country! Some have 2 years of experience, both at PC. Some are young... others are younger (I don't think anyone would classify themselves as old!). One of our counselors is a Dominican priest... Many of us are PC grads, but not all of us - and it's critical to have that outside perspective, that different collegiate experience present in the committee. We each bring with us our own unique college (and high school) experiences - the classes we took, the activities we were involved in - and we do our best to relate to YOU and your experiences. I have great respect for students who hold an after-school job because I worked at a supermarket during high school. One of my colleagues especially loves applicants who wrestle - because of his own experience on the wrestling team during high school.

That's us! If we sound like a relatively interesting group of people, good! (I think we are!). You know what else I get from the above description? That the decision-making process is human, is subjective, is personal. I think the one thing our staff prides itself on the most is how personal, thorough, and holistic we make the review process; there are no magic formulas making the decisions on who will be accepted to PC. No computer programs, no GPA/SAT grids, no numerical cutoffs are employed. Sure, we talk about numbers in committee- we take a close look at your high school performance, your GPA, your class rank (to a much lesser extent) if it's available. But the great thing about committee is that we talk about the people behind the paper. We talk about how a Student Council President brings her class together after the tragic death of a classmate; we hear the glowing recommendation from a community service advisor about how a student truly does put others before himself; we read a fantastic essay that explains what one young lady learned about herself and a diverse group of her fellow human beings from the everyday activity of riding the city bus to school in Seattle.

I should probably explain how our Committee on Admission meetings are set up (maybe I should have done this at the top of this posting- oops!). As you know if you're a thorough reader of this blog, each admission counselor is responsible for a different geographic territory (that we travel to in the fall) and we each complete the first review of all of the applications that come in from our region. In the committee setting, each counselor is responsible for presenting the applicants from his or her territory that have gone through a multiple read process (at least two and often times three or four reads) and been designated as "committee students." After the counselor presents an applicant's information, the floor is opened for questions and discussion, as the committee spends as much time as is necessary to get to know the student well enough to make the appropriate admission decision. These decisions are made together, with each committee member given the chance to state their feelings on each applicant and then the group coming to a decision. Do we always agree? Of course not, but I think it's comforting for prospective students to know that no one person is ever making the decision on their application - it is always a group effort, and certainly nothing will be overlooked with 15 counselors examining a student's credentials.

So what do you think? Exciting? Sure it is. We have the opportunity to hear the stories of so many qualified candidates to PC, to learn about many different types of students and to give them the opportunity to continue their education at Providence. Again, we don't always agree on every decision, and occasionally we do get upset when one of "our" students (from a counselor's territory) is unable to be accepted. But unfortunately, we don't have enough spaces in our freshman class to accommodate every student that applies, and of course we as counselors go into committee knowing that. And so, we don't have a continuous tension in the room because a student from our territory is not admitted. In fact, we run the emotional gamut during committee. We laugh at the jokes a clever student makes in his essay. Our hearts break when we hear a guidance counselor detail a student's difficult family situation. We are proud of the student who moves from college prep-level classes into honors courses and continues their strong academic performance. And there isn't really another feeling like the one we get when we're able to fulfill a first-generation college student's dream by deciding to accept her to PC.

That's a preview of what's to come in Harkins Hall this week. I am one of the counselors who will "get the ball rolling" by presenting applicants tomorrow, which means we will be talking about some amazing students from Massachusetts, the mid-Atlantic, and Louisiana. I hope this (very long) posting has provided a little insight into what we do in PC's Committee on Admission meetings. If you are hungry for more info, don't worry- all of the above are memories from our committees of the past two years. It begins again tomorrow, which means a good night's sleep is a must for me! I'll let you know how it goes soon! Until then, have a great night!

*Scott

We've officially gotten started with Committee on Admission meetings... and actually just finished enjoying a luncheon for our student ambassadors on campus (if college students love free [and good!] food, admission counselors who are in committee REALLY love free [and good!] food!). A lot of very strong applicants so far which is great... but obviously makes it a little more difficult for us to choose who should be admitted to PC...

More details to come...

So here we are at the end of day #2 of Early Action committee 2006. We all came into committee knowing how strong the applicant pool is and knowing there would be some difficult decisions ahead of us, but I think today really showed us how much talent there is across the board in this Early Action pool. When referring to one of the applicants from her territory, one of our Associate Deans said, "Well, there were some minuses-- A-minuses." That about sums up the past couple of days!

While the counseling staff continues to marvel at the academic quality of the applications in committee, a lot of the discussion time is spent on the non-academic side of the applicants. In many (or most!) cases, an application that is being reviewed in the committee setting features a student who has performed very well academically, and due to the depth of the pool, it often comes down to the subjective factors when we are making these difficult decisions. As I've mentioned in previous postings, this is the time when involvement, leadership, recommendations, writing statements, and overall match and fit to PC play crucial roles in the process. Since these are the subjective (or "human") factors, the amount of time spent discussing an applicant can vary widely; with some, the entire staff quickly comes to the conclusion that a student would be a great fit to PC and the decision is made. With other applicants, however, we spend a much longer time coming to a consensus-- many times because the student has some type of story that needs to be told and considered. It's very interesting to note that especially with these candidates, I am sometimes surprised with the direction the committee chooses to go. Sometimes there is a "feel" in the room that counselors are leaning toward "invite" or "defer," and then we reach the opposite conclusion by the end of the discussion. Of course, it's a good thing that counselors aren't coming in with preconceived notions on applicants; rather, we use the information presented to us by the student in his or her application to come to our final decision. We weigh each student's application in the context of our applicant pool, and work to invite the students who we see as truly the best fit (inside and outside of the classroom) to PC.

General observations from the first two days:

-High school curriculum is enormously important in the eyes of the committee (I know that this is old news for many of you... I've said it countless times in this blog, we say it at every high school visit and on-campus information session that we do, but it certainly rings true in the committee setting). Students who take weak senior schedules are at an extreme disadvantage in the review (we really mean it when we say competitive candidates for admission have taken 4 years of the 5 core subject areas and taken an appropriate level of advanced/honors/AP/IB courses in the context of what their high school offers).

-Applicants who declare Biology as their major really need to have a strong math preparation along with their strong science prep (i.e. advancing well beyond Algebra 2 or Trigonometry).

-There is a healthy respect for students work at a part-time job during the school year. We understand the responsibility (and time commitment) that goes with this, and we are amazed at some students' abilities to balance a job, a strong academic performance, and still be meaningfully involved in extra-curricular activities.

-Fit to the Providence College community is a very important consideration as well. I know I've said it before (such as earlier in this posting!), but it bears repeating: we are looking for students who we feel are the right match to PC both in and outside of the classroom and will contribute positively to our campus community.

On to day #3 tomorrow... a longer day so that we are able to stay on track and make sure that our decision letters are sent out on schedule. Tomorrow's schedule consists of a morning session (9:00 AM to noon), an afternoon session (2:00 PM to 4:30 PM) and, for the first time this week, an evening session (6:00 PM to 9:00 PM). I will let you know how the sessions go! Hope you're having a great week!

*Scott

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!)

Committee on Admission continues... Here's a visual! Well, without the counselors, of course... This is what the room looks like where we make the decisions!!! Very cozy...

We have completed our main Committee on Admission meetings for Early Action 2006! Therefore, we are in the final stages of the Early Action review leading up to decision letters being sent out. This week, we will be tying up loose ends, tracking down any missing items needed to complete applications, printing and proofreading decision letters, and getting set to mail them out to you. It is still looking like decision letters will be reaching mailboxes sometime next week... More info to follow!

Hi everybody! Before I get into those final thoughts on the Early Action decision-making process, I do want to say thank you to all of you who are reading this blog, posting your comments, asking questions, and even discussing its content on other college admission websites! We started this blog with the hope that it would alleviate at least some of the mystery behind the admission review process here at PC and from the comments that we've received, it's been at least partially successful! Obviously this blog is geared toward our prospective students and their families, but I also want to say that I appreciate all of the other people who are faithful readers and have given me some positive feedback. They include PC administrators, current PC students, parents of some of our admission staff (who are getting the inside scoop about what their sons and daughters are doing at work!), and of course, the many PC alums who are keeping in touch with their alma mater (and I have to mention here a favorite of ours in the Office of Admission, Brady M. from the Class of 2005 who is living in Cambridge, MA right now and who was one of the best student tour guides and ambassadors we could have ever asked for in the office-- Brady, I know you've been very faithfully reading and I definitely appreciate it!). Now that that's been said...

We're less than a day away from decision letters being released (tomorrow morning), and here's your recap of the Early Action admission process... Nearly 3,200 applicants, which as I've mentioned before, is about a 45% increase in applications from where we were last year at Early Action. Clearly, it was extremely competitive, due to the increase in applications, yes, but also due to the strength of the students who applied! We definitely did not see a drop-off in quality with the increase in quantity!

So how many of the 3,200 could we invite? Well, remember, our freshman class has 960 spaces... and we still have our entire Regular Decision applicant pool to consider on top of the 3,200 who applied EA... so, we accepted about 1,425 students Early Action-- 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!). By the way, we do know going into this process that not every student who we accept is going to choose us (they will have lots of great schools to choose from!) -- that's why we invite considerably more than the 960 freshmen we have room for. But...

...were there other students in the Early Action pool (beyond the 1,425 we accepted) who could be successful in our classrooms at PC? The answer to that is yes-- all of the students we deferred have the academic ability to be successful. That is why students who receive a defer letter should not interpret it as a "soft deny" -- when we defer a student, we do believe that they have a legitimate chance to be accepted during the Regular Decision review. There will be nearly 1,000 students who will be deferred, meaning that their application will be carried over to the Regular Decision pool and they will receive a final decision in March. These deferred students are a very talented group, but in the context of our applicant pool Early Action, we were unable to offer them admission. Unfortunately, over 700 students will be denied Early Action as the Committee on Admission did not see them as an academic fit to PC. Denying these students EA is difficult to do but we feel that passing along this information now instead of waiting until March is beneficial to these students and their families and allows them to pursue other options.

There is your objective, numerical recap of the Early Action decision-making process. But we always stress looking beyond the numbers here in the PC Office of Admission, so as promised, here are my own unabridged (subjective!) thoughts on my third year of attending Committee on Admission meetings:

Academically, two of the important things in the eyes of the committee (as we've been saying all along) are the student's overall curriculum AND senior schedule. For you juniors out there, I can't stress enough how important it is to continue to take a challenging courseload senior year. A student who "takes senior year off" is not going to win points with any of the counselors on the staff-- it really is a surefire way for an application to end up with a deny decision. More than once this year we looked at a student with a borderline GPA or a compelling story, and considered deferring the student in order to see senior year performance... only to see that their senior schedule consisted of English, Trig, and a history elective-- and two study halls, phys ed, and Basket Weaving 101. And when an EA applicant has a weak senior schedule, the committee usually comes to two conclusions: (1) We are not going to accept the student because they have not earned an invite in the context of the overall applicant pool based on their less than challenging senior year and (2) there is not all that much to be gained from deferring the student to see senior year performance because... we only have 3 classes to see grades in! Which means there's only one decision left to make... So one last time, to all of the underclassmen out there-- continuing to take on challenging courses senior year is vital to be successful in the college admission process!!

Also on the academic side, we look closely at GPA during the committee meetings, but not just the overall number. More important than that number is how a student got to their GPA. Did the student really struggle freshman year but has shown us an upward trend throughout high school? Or did the student have an "A-" GPA freshman year followed by a "B" average sophomore year followed by a "C+" GPA as a junior? The student in the second example will not be receiving support from the committee. The moral of the story is we love to see progression (an upward trend) in GPA; we definitely do not like to see digression (or a downward trend) in GPA.

This Early Action committee was also the first that we have done while being a test-optional institution, and I have to say that being test-optional did not change our committee process one bit from the two years I experienced when SAT/ACT scores were required. Just like in the past, we spent our time talking about... the person... a student's extra-curricular involvement, essays, and their match and fit to our campus community. We have never quibbled over SAT scores in committee-- not once in my three years have we said, "Let's take this student because she has a 1250 SAT and that one only has an 1150." Officially becoming test-optional gives our applicants the choice to submit their scores but doesn't change what we do-- it is simply backing up the way we have always reviewed applications in the committee setting. The combination of the high school academic preparation and performance plus the personal characteristics that make a student the right fit to Providence College!

So there you have it... We've just about reached the end of the Early Action process and I'll mention one more time-- decision letters will be leaving our office tomorrow (Saturday, December 23).

Finally, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy your school break! We will be closing the office for Christmas so I will talk to you again in 2007! Best wishes to you and your family over the holidays!

*Scott

Some of you may have noticed that I've had fewer blog postings over the past couple of weeks... and here comes my excuse for that: 7,500 applications that our Admission staff has to consider during our Regular Decision review process! Yes, that is a lot for 15 counselors! That's my excuse!!! I promise to write more soon!!!

Looks like I will have some help starting next week... a pair of student bloggers will be joining in on the fun!!! Stay tuned...

Back in (chilly) Providence after my short visit to Maryland for yesterday's college fair. I arrived back in the office today to find the rest of the admission staff continuing to proofread and organize decision letters, which will be leaving our hands this week. Before the letters go out, I do want to talk about students who were deferred from Early Action, and the decisions they could (and will) receive in the next week.

One thing the admission committee always struggles with is whether to place a deferred student on the waiting list after they have been reviewed again during the regular decision process. It is very difficult for us because we have already postponed making a final decision for these students once-- when we deferred them to the regular decision pool after they applied at our Early Action deadline. Therefore, by placing them on the waiting list, we are asking these students to wait again-- this time until after May 1 to see if any spaces become available in the freshman class after the students who were initially invited have decided where they will enroll. Although it is a dilemma for us, we do place deferred students on the waiting list in some cases, and below is the explanation as to why we do...

When we defer a student at Early Action, there are two main reasons for this decision: (1) to see the student's senior year academic performance and (2) to see the student in the context of the overall applicant pool (not just the Early Action group). Students who are deferred receive a complete review again with the Regular Decision applicants, and there are three potential decisions that all students could receive at this point: invite; wait list; deny. Looking at the deferred students in the context of this group, a number of these students (many times even if they have a strong first semester performance) have the academic and overall profile of a student who is not strong enough to invite, but too strong to deny; therefore, we place them on the waiting list.

Consider the following two examples:

(1) A deferred student is considered in the context of the overall pool and has the profile of a wait list (their performance is not on the level of the Regular Decision invited students). So, because we don't want to make this student wait again, we deny the student. This effectively would be penalizing this student for applying Early Action-- giving them a deny decision when they have the credentials to be placed on the waiting list. While placing this student on the waiting list does mean they have to wait again for a final decision, it also keeps the door open for those students who have their heart set on attending Providence-- something a deny decision obviously would not do.

(2) A deferred student has a strong senior year but still looks like a wait list in the context of the overall pool. But not wanting to make the student wait again, we decide to invite the student. By doing this, we would be penalizing Regular Decision applicants by admitting an EA student who is less qualified simply because we wanted to give the deferred student a final decision. For all of you who applied Regular Decision, rest assured that the EA students did not have any competitive advantage in the process just because they applied early.

We strive to make the Early Action and Regular Decision review processes consistent, and because of that philosophy, students who are deferred can and do end up being wait listed because that is the decision that is most appropriate to make in the context of the overall applicant pool. We know that it is painful for these students to have to wait a second time and we wish there was a better way, but we feel our decision to wait list deferred students when appropriate is most fair to everyone. I would love to hear your observations, opinions, or comments on the subject as well-- please feel free to post them!!

This is a question that comes up every year when decision letters are released, and the answer is a nice follow-up to my previous posting. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I rarely give short answers to questions-- and I'd like to give a detailed answer to this one as well! The short answer, though, for those of you who want the abridged version, is that there are so many other factors considered in the review process than just a GPA or class rank or SAT/ACT number. Let's delve a little deeper into this topic...

First of all, though the average invited student GPA is an "A-" this year, all "A-'s" are not created equal. As I have mentioned, we are looking at the GPA on our 4.0 scale. Though some high schools give extra weighting in the numeric GPA to Honors/AP level courses, we look at all GPAs on that straight 4.0 scale. Where students do get the "weight" for Honors and AP courses they have taken is in our strength of curriculum evaluation-- we take a look at what a student's high school offers and what courses the student then chose to take advantage of. The student's strength of curriculum rating and GPA are ALWAYS looked at hand-in-hand throughout the entire review process.

Also, while the overall GPA is certainly important, how a student got to that GPA is also extremely important in our review process. Take a look at these two examples-- both students with an overall GPA of just below an A-minus:

1. Student #1 has his/her weakest year as a freshman, achieving a GPA of a "B," but steadily improves each year to bring his overall GPA up to around an "A-"...
Grade 9 GPA: B
Grade 10 GPA: A-
Grade 11 GPA: A-
Grade 12 GPA: (1st semester) A

2. Student #2 has his/her weakest year as a senior, dipping an entire letter grade from the "A" average that the student achieved freshman year...
Grade 9 GPA: A
Grade 10 GPA: A-
Grade 11 GPA: B+
Grade 12 GPA: (1st semester) B

These two students are in approximately the same area when only their overall GPAs are considered, but obviously have taken different routes to get there. We are definitely aware of GPA trends, and are much happier to see a student with an upward trend in GPA (like Student #1) rather than the student with the GPA digression (Student #2). As we stress all the time here at PC, students cannot rest on their laurels after freshman and sophomore years-- they must continue to achieve during the junior and especially during the senior year.

Just from looking at the GPAs themselves, it is easy to see why students who have similar numbers can receive different admission decisions... But it is also important to remember the major role the subjective (non-academic) portions of the application play in admission decisions. Though you might have some idea of another student's grade point average or class rank, you are not seeing the entire application package that we see-- the college essay, the recommendations, the detailed level of their involvement, the additional materials they submit with their application, their choice of major... and the list goes on. These non-academic and supplemental pieces of information often are the "tip factors," or the reasons why students with similar academic numbers receive different decisions. As I have mentioned previously, MANY students have the average invite GPA, but we have limited space in the freshman class and the non-academic factors are crucial in our decisions of which students we will invite.

There you have it... the relatively short answer as to why students who look similar academically often receive different decisions. (And it is a relatively short answer, because I could go on and on about all of the factors we are considering to make our final decisions, but I think you get the idea). More thoughts to come!!

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

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...

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!

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!

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...)

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

It's that time of year where we work LOTS of hours... as you can tell seeing as I'm in the Office of Admission at, oh, 9:14 PM on a Monday night (and Tuesday, and Wednesday... you get the picture!). Hope your Monday was a good one!

Wow, time flies when you're reading applications! Here we are on the 21st of February already, with our Regular Decision Committee on Admission meetings set to begin during the first week of March. If you haven't been keeping up, Committee on Admission (COA or just "committee" for short) is where the entire counseling staff gathers to make the final decisions on our Regular Decision applicants. Here's what will be happening leading up to COA...

This week, we are finishing up our initial review ("first reads," as we call them) of every Regular Decision application. After the first reads have been completed, and each student's information and status has been updated in our computer system (which takes some time with over 5,600 Regular Decision applications!), we will move onto the next stage of the review process. "Second reads" are up next - every student's application file will be reviewed by a second counselor who will add their own input and either agree or disagree with the first reader's recommended decision. And after "second reads," there are still some other places applications could go. Some applications will go on to a third reader, who will be one of the senior staff members in the Office of Admission. And many others will make their way into COA and will be heard by the entire counseling staff during the first two weeks of March.

As you can see, it's certainly a multi-step review process - it takes some time (this is why decision letters won't go out until late March!) but is also the most thorough and, we believe, the fairest way to go through the process. More updates are on the way!

As much as we talk about it everywhere and as much as I hammer its importance in this very blog, I'm not sure that our prospective students always realize just how important their high school curriculum choices are in the admission review process. As I complete "second reads" on about 200 applications this week, I have been disappointed with certain students who have performed well "GPA-wise" but have not challenged themselves in the classroom or - worst of all - have decided to "take senior year off" by dropping out of challenging courses or not completing a fourth year of all five core academic subject areas.

Simply put, strength of curriculum is the most important factor in admission decisions at Providence College. Obviously it's not the only factor, but it's our starting point - and it's tough for a student to get any support from our counseling staff if their curriculum isn't up to par (no matter how strong their GPA is or what they bring to the table outside of the classroom).

First and foremost, we are looking for students to take four years of all five core academic subject areas: English, Math, Natural Science, Social Science/History, and Foreign Language. This is the first step to having a strong high school curriculum that will prepare a student to succeed in the Liberal Arts curriculum that we have at PC. Ending a math sequence with Algebra 2 junior year, taking only three years of science, and stopping foreign language study with Spanish 2 in the sophomore year are not good curriculum decisions. First of all, these choices mean that a student is less prepared to succeed at PC... and secondly, they immediately put the student at a disadvantage in an applicant pool with students who have completed four years of the core subject areas.

Completing four years of the core subject areas is the first step, but certainly not the last in forming a strong high school curriculum. We are also looking for students who have challenged themselves by taking advanced and Honors-level courses where appropriate throughout high school. When we come across a student with strong grades in a subject (let's say all "A's" in English) and maybe strong test scores as well in that area (a 650-700 SAT Critical Reading and/or Writing score), we are expecting the student to have taken advantage of the Honors/AP courses that their high school offers in English... If this type of student has taken the basic college-prep level for all four years when Honors/AP courses are available, it is difficult to support this student's application - the student had the opportunity to do so much more by taking a higher-level course during high school, but took the easy way out... despite having the ability to succeed (based on their English grades) in the higher-level courses.

One important point I should make on curriculum: a student's "strength of curriculum" is always going to be looked at in the context of the high school they are coming from. In other words, a student will never be penalized for not taking a course that their high school doesn't offer. If a student attends a high school that only offers 2 AP courses and the student takes both of them, they may have taken the most demanding curriculum available to them. But if a student attends a high school that offers more opportunity for academic challenge, we want to see that student take advantage of it appropriately - challenging him/herself at a level in which they can also succeed in the classroom.

As all of you seniors who have already applied are beyond the point of changing your course schedules, this posting is aimed more toward juniors. As your 11th grade year draws to a close and you select your courses for senior year, remember that continuing to take a challenging curriculum is very important (and continuing with that 4th year of Spanish just might be a better choice than taking a study hall). If you have questions about curriculum, please feel free to post them here!

Have a great weekend!

Actually, that title sums up my entire life right now... Therefore, if you have posted here in the last couple of weeks or if you are a junior and have e-mailed me asking curriculum questions, please be patient - I promise to get back to you as soon as I can!

Hi again, everybody! Sorry to be MIA for so long... Committee on Admission meetings = my entire life right now! For those of you who posted in the comments section of my "Curriculum" post last week, thanks for your patience! Your answers are up (click on the "Comments" link in the bottom right-hand corner of that posting).

I promise more updates soon... one week of Committee meetings down, one to go! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

*Scott

Hi everyone!

Some news to report: if you were deferred Early Action (EA) and received an invitation to our Family Day accepted student program in the mail this week – oops… and congratulations! Instead of only mailing the Family Day invitations to students who were accepted EA, we inadvertently sent them to some students who were deferred EA, but who we will be inviting when we release decisions next week.

We are finishing our application review this week and our actual decision letters will be released by the end of next week. If you received the invitation to Family Day, you will also be receiving an acceptance letter in the near future. However, if you were deferred EA but did not receive a Family Day invitation – that does not necessarily mean you were denied in the Regular Decision review process. The Family Day invitations were sent to only a small number of deferred (soon to be accepted!) students – other deferred students will be invited by the end of our Committee on Admission meetings this week.

As we near the end of the review process, we work so hard to make sure that everything goes smoothly – and so again I will say, oops! But once more, congrats to all of you who received the Family Day invitation – you can look at it as a sneak preview of your soon-to-arrive acceptance letter!

For our students who were accepted back in December during the EA review process, your Family Day invitations should have already arrived or will arrive this week. You can register for Family Day by following the web link on the invitation or by calling the Office of Admission.

The end of the review process is certainly in sight – more details on the release of decision letters to come shortly! Stay tuned!

*Scott

The entire admission staff is working on a Saturday to complete our final committee session for the applicants to the Class of 2012... We are nearing the conclusion of our Regular Decision review process... Stay close...

On Saturday, we concluded the review of our Regular Decision applicants for admission with our final day of Committee on Admission meetings. The admission staff was on campus for about 8 hours Saturday, completing the review of about 170 applicants for our final 66 spaces in next year's freshman class. The final day of committee is often the most difficult, because all of the students we are considering have done remarkable work during high school... but due to limitations on class size we are unable to accept all of them. This year was no different- we had to make many tough decisions throughout the day. But what stood out for me about Saturday was how thoroughly each of these applications (and by extension, all of the applications we received this year) had been reviewed. Although it is very difficult to see some of these very talented students being placed on the waiting list, all of us on the admission staff feel very positively about the WAY we go about the review process - the committee review gives us the opportunity to give these applicants a very thorough and fair review. (And I just used the word "review" three times in that sentence...)

So, we have completed the review process, but we still have some other things to do before decision letters can go out... Among other things, we have to print and proofread each decision letter; stuff and seal the envelopes; complete a roster check to make sure that every student who has applied will receive a decision letter (and the right letter!)... We will be completing these important tasks over the next few days, and will be mailing decision letters by the end of the week. I'll let you know when we release them! Please remember: it is college policy NOT to release decisions over the phone, so please do NOT call our office this week- decisions will ONLY be released through the mail. Thanks for your patience! More updates to come!

*Scott

By Chris Lydon, Dean of Admission

My thanks to Scott for lending me his space to share some of my thoughts about the selection process that has just ended for the Class of 2012.

One of the recurring themes this year and every year for me is, “don’t trust the numbers." Countless times we’ll be sitting in our committee meetings and we’ll see the academic credentials for the next candidate on our roster before the counselor starts the presentation. Sometimes, the initial reaction is, “this will be an easy one." Only to find out that the very attractive “numbers" (rank, gpa, standardized test scores – if submitted) aren’t matched by the counselor’s presentation. Glowing cumulative numbers are great, but grade digression, reduced curriculum challenge senior year, poor writing samples and superficial extracurricular participation can change that initial reaction in a heartbeat.

Conversely, there are times when you look at the next candidate’s numbers and wonder, “how did he/she make it this far?" Only to find out that the candidate has a “story" – overcoming personal or medical obstacles, contributing in distinctive ways to their school or community, articulating genuine and specific interest in attending PC – and doing their best work as a high school senior. Bottom line? You may be able to form a class by focusing on the numbers, but you can’t create a community.

This fact was brought home to me most vividly during the 12th and final day of our committee meetings. That day is reserved for the applications that have had multiple reads, have already been heard in committee, but for whom the final decision is still in question. As Scott noted on Monday, we started the final day with 170 applications left – and 66 class spaces available. Every single candidate in the room was academically attractive. No senior year digression, wonderful involvement and leadership in activities, and the support of multiple members of the admission staff. This is Final Committee –and it’s both tense and ultimately, exhilarating.

But that’s the end of the process – how did we get to the final committee day?

The first and second read components of our review justifiably focus on academic preparation and achievement as well as the personal qualities the candidate exhibits. Between recalculating the GPA, evaluating the curriculum, and reading every item submitted, the first reads alone average between 35 – 45 minutes. Scott has mentioned this many times, but it’s important to reiterate it here, the vast majority of our applicants are academically qualified to succeed. The further along we get, the more the academic preparation blurs between candidates – and the personal qualities become the separation points.

But go back to my “story" example. I hear more and more from students who lament that they don’t have a “hook" to their application. No personal tragedies (as if that’s bad), no truly unique experiences, no legacy connection or special talents. In fact, an unusual number of essays seemed to address some variation of that theme this year.

“Hooks" are less common than you think. Most candidates present applications that are thorough and demonstrate academic and extracurricular achievement. Candidates who have helped us understand something about their personal qualities (primarily through their own writing and their recommendations) often become most attractive to us. Remember, we’re trying to build a community. The qualities about Providence College that made you apply in the first place must be preserved with each entering class. Providence College is a distinctive community – as you’ve told us over and over in the thousands of essays we’ve read. My best advice to future applicants is to let yourself come through – it’s not about the style, it’s about the substance.

Third reads follow second reads, and by this time, the majority of the applications have a consensus decision. That doesn’t mean that they won’t get looked at again, but usually at this point they are flagged as invited, waitlisted or denied. They may be looked at again if a coach calls to inquire on behalf of a recruit, if a fine arts faculty member wants to check on a candidate who auditioned or submitted a portfolio, or if another member of the Providence College community asks us to look at someone of interest to them. These applications may also be pulled into a committee meeting if the counselor believes that new information (like late-arriving mid-year grades) could change the outcome (positive or negative). All of this leads to the last day.

How did we select those last 66? By listening to the presentation, by focusing on each candidate and their interest in Providence College, by considering the fit to their chosen major (without penalizing those who applied undeclared), and putting these last candidates into the context of all of the decisions already made. Votes are taken and the pile dwindles – as do the number of spaces remaining. Finally, after several rounds, it truly is down to two files and one remaining space. And this year, after all of the back and forth, when the last vote was taken, the staff was unanimous about our final selection. That doesn’t happen all the time, but it certainly was a wonderful conclusion to the building intensity of the last several weeks.

Scott has a done a fabulous job of conveying what we look for and how the various stages of the selection process work. I’ll add that between the early and regular review processes, we put approximately 2,600 candidates through the full committee review. Some discussions were brief, others went on for 15 minutes. And sometimes after all that, we still pushed the application to the final committee day, where it was heard again. At Providence College, our review is deeply personal. I know that students who are denied or waitlisted usually disagree with our judgment – and I respect that our choices may not seem right to some people. While I’m proud of the profile of those students invited to be part of the Class of 2012, I am most proud of the fifteen counselors in the Admission Office who have carefully and respectfully considered every candidate.

This week, while I was up in the Lowell, MA area visiting high schools, I had a student ask me the same question multiple times. The conversation went something like this:

Student: "I was on campus for an information session this summer, and the counselor was talking about how PC is SAT-optional. How can that be? Are you really?"

Me: "We are. PC announced in the summer of 2006 that we are a test-optional institution. To put it simply, we have always felt that a student's four-year high school performance (measured by the combination of curriculum and GPA) is a much better indicator of success in our classrooms at PC than a standardized test score."

Student: "Yeah, that's what the counselor said at the info session. But... really??"

Me: "Really."

It's true, SAT and ACT scores are really optional in the PC application review process. And when we officially became a test-optional institution two years ago, it didn't change the way we reviewed applications in the Office of Admission one bit. Test scores have never driven the admission process at PC, and therefore, being test-optional was the right decision for us as an institution. In our comprehensive, thorough, and holistic review process, every student's application will be read multiple times by multiple counselors. So, we're not using any sort of numerical cutoffs or GPA/SAT grid to make our decisions. Above all else, it is a human review process, where admission decisions are made by admission counselors, not a computer-generated formula.

Let's go back to that high school visit, to the real question the student was asking:

Student: "So, should I submit my SAT scores, or not?"

That is a decision that is up to each individual student, a question you have to answer on your own. But let me say this - regardless of whether or not you choose to submit your SAT/ACT scores, your high school academic performance (that combination of curriculum and GPA) will be the most important factor in our admission review process. The best advice I can give you about submitting your test scores is this: If you feel that your SAT/ACT scores are an accurate representation of your academic ability, and back up your high school academic performance, feel free to send them in. If, however, you feel that your test scores are not representative, feel free not to submit them. Either way, test scores are not a "make or break factor" in the Providence College admission process.

I hope this entry helps to answer some of your questions about our test-optional policy. If it has generated additional questions, that's great too - please post them in the "Comments" section of this blog so other students and families can see the questions and answers.

*Scott
Lowell, 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

This week marks the beginning of the Early Action (EA) application review process in the Office of Admission - and we are definitely excited about it! Our 15 admission counselors attended our annual "reading (applications) meeting" on Monday, to talk about the EA applicant pool and what we will be looking for as we review applications this year to build the Providence College Class of 2013.

And speaking of reviewing applications...

We initially read applications here at PC by geographic territory, and as you can see in my bio at the top of this blog, I travel to and am the first reader of all applications from the following areas:

1) Parts of Massachusetts (Berkshire and Franklin Counties in Western Mass and the Concord, Lowell, and Wellesley areas west of Boston)
2) California
3) Arizona
4) New Mexico
5) Hawaii

As the first reader of applications from these areas, I am responsible for having a sense of the high school environments these students are coming out of, and I have spent the last two months traveling to these areas, visiting high schools, attending college fairs, and meeting prospective students, families, and high school counselors. If you are from any of these areas and have applied to PC Early Action, I will be the first person to thoroughly review your application... in fact, it could be on my desk as we speak...

I do have my first 35 or so applications in my office, and I spent some time yesterday looking at the academic performance of these students. While the admission review at PC is holistic, and we carefully consider all pieces of the application, we begin with a student's academic record and take a close look at high school performance. We spend a significant amount of time exploring each student's transcript, looking at the strength of their curriculum, the high school environment they are coming out of, and recalculating each student's GPA on to our Providence College 4.0 scale. We'll talk more about the academic component of the review later on this week, and as we progress through the month of November, I will delve into the subjective, non-academic pieces of the application as well (such as recommendations, the college essay, and involvement/leadership during the high school years).

As always, should you have questions about how we review applications here at PC, please feel free to post them in the "Comments" section of this blog (click on the "Comments" link in the bottom right corner) and I will be happy to answer them!

Hi everybody... Let's talk a little bit about the academic review process here at PC. We are well into the Early Action application review, and I have personally already read a good number of applications from my geographic territories. So... what stands out?

Well, senior year curriculum is a good place to start. With Early Action applicants, we do not see their first semester senior year grades, but we do take a close look at curriculum. This schedule is important because we want to see a strong finish to the high school career so students are academically ready to tackle our courses at PC next fall. I have been impressed with a lot of students who have continued to take on a challenging courseload senior year - often taking additional core academic electives ("doubling-up" by taking two history classes or two math classes, in addition to completing a fourth year of all five core subject areas). Another positive I have seen with regard to senior curriculum are the students who are truly challenging themselves in their areas of interest. I just finished reading a Biology major applicant who took on AP Calculus, AP Biology, and Honors Physics senior year - a nice preparation for the area of study that she is looking to go into.

Unfortunately, I have also been disappointed with some of the senior schedules I have seen - both the overall senior curriculum and also schedules in the context of chosen majors. Earlier today, I read (another) Biology major applicant who finished Algebra 2 junior year but elected not to continue with a math class senior year. Not a good decision by that student... how can we be confident that he will succeed in our Bio program (which requires a strong math background!) when he has only taken up to Algebra 2, and will have a full year without any math before starting college? (By the way, our Biology majors at PC start freshman year by taking Calculus in addition to General Biology, General Chemistry, and our Development of Western Civilization program, so a student who hasn't shown successful math performance through at least Pre Calculus during high school isn't going to fare too well... and likely isn't going to be invited).

Sorry to stay with the negative, but a couple of other disappointing things I've noticed during the academic review: (1) students who have three very challenging years of high school, then significantly reduce academic challenge senior year and (2) students who submit very strong SAT/ACT scores, but don't back up that performance with their work in the classroom. Unfortunately for students in both of these situations, they are not competitive applicants in the context of our Early Action applicant pool.

Okay... I am headed back to read some more applications. Of course, more thoughts to come on academics and the personal, subjective, non-academic pieces of the application as well as we continue through the Early Action process. See you soon!

We're well into the Early Action review process here on December 6th, and while we have talked a lot about the academic portion of our review, our admission counselors spend just as much time carefully considering the subjective, non-academic pieces of each application. At PC, we feel lucky each year to have a very talented applicant pool, in terms of high school academic performance. What this means is that we see many more "qualified" candidates (students who we believe could succeed academically at PC based on their high school curriculum and performance) than we have space in our freshman class for. So, how do we make distinctions when considering students who look very, very similiar academically?

The answer is that we look beyond the transcript, and use the non-academic pieces of each student's application to get a sense of who that student is on the personal level, and also what they will bring to our campus community outside of the classroom. First and foremost, we want to enroll a strong academic freshman class... but, we also don't want to have 1,000 incoming freshman who sit in their residence halls or the library 24/7. PC has always been known for our vibrant, active, involved community, and to continue to have that type of environment on campus, the admission committee will select students who show us that they have been similiarly involved during their four years of high school.

What kind of involvement do we look for? All different kinds! We have over 70 student clubs and organizations; 19 Division 1 sports teams; an incredibly active and dedicated Campus Ministry organization; opportunities for actors, musicians, and dancers in our Smith Center for the Arts; and so many more ways to get involved. In other words, when we look at high school involvement, we don't see one certain activity as "better" than another. We are looking for a wide range of different activities to be represented by the students in our freshman class.

In the group of applications I've read so far, I have found 3-sport athletes, Student Council Presidents, students deeply committed to community service, students who work more than 20 hours per week during the school year... and many other kinds of involvement. Rest assured, regardless of what you are involved with inside or outside of your high school, these activities and/or work experiences will be strongly considered by our committee on admission.

One last note on activities... Remember, it's not the quantity of your involvement, but rather the quality that will make your extracurricular profile stand out. Dedication to two or three activities where a student has taken on a true leadership role often makes more of an impact than a student who is "involved" in 15 different organizations - but not necessarily committed to any of them. We're not looking for the students with the longest activity sheets, but rather the students who have shown true dedication, commitment, and leadership to the activities they have been involved in, and will bring those qualities to our campus community next fall.

There are certain questions that we hear all the time regarding the admission review process: What is your average GPA for admitted students? Should I submit my SAT scores? Who should I get to write my teacher recommendations? What should I write my essay about?

But a question we hear a lot at this time of the year is this: Why didn't I get in to PC?

Honestly, there are a lot of different reasons, as each student's application is considered individually and thoroughly in the context of our entire applicant pool and our freshman class size. For some students, their academic performance at the high school level (measured by the combination of strength of curriculum and GPA) has not prepared them to succeed in our classrooms at Providence College. When we see a student who hasn't achieved strong grades in a challenging high school schedule, we do not feel confident in their ability to then achieve in our academic environment. But many other students are more borderline, and there are certain areas that stand out time and time again that lead us to deny a student from PC. The list below highlights some of the major things that hurt a student's opportunity for admission to Providence College:

1. GPA Digression - This is a big one. A downward trend in academic performance is a major red flag for us. The student who has an A-minus GPA freshman year... and then a B-average sophomore year... and then a B-minus GPA junior year... It's incredibly difficult for a student with this type of GPA trend to gain admission to PC... because so many other students consistently perform at a high level (in a challenging curriculum) throughout all four years of high school. Digression in GPA is one reason that not every student who meets our average invited student GPA is accepted to PC. And it's also why we don't simply look at a cumulative GPA by itself. How a student gets to that GPA is incredibly important in our review. Simply stated, a student who has his or her best year as a freshman and digresses significantly from there is not likely to be a competitive candidate for admission.

2. Weak Senior Curriculum - This is also a big factor... Senior year performance is critically important because we want students to be doing their best work and continuing to challenge themselves as they get ready to transition to the college level. A soft senior schedule is an easy way to stand out negatively in the applicant pool. More often than not, if a student is borderline in our EA pool based on previous academic performance (i.e. they are not strong enough to invite so they could be a defer or a deny) AND they have a weak senior schedule, they are going to receive the deny decision. Why? Because when we defer a student at Early Action, we do so in order to see how they compare with the students who apply at Regular Decision AND to see how the student performs in that first semester of senior year. But if the student has a weak senior curriculum, those first semester grades aren't going to tell us much... and since we don't see the student as admissable academically and won't have any additional information during the Regular Decision review (due to the weak curriculum) that will improve his or her academics, generally this type of student will receive that deny decision.

3. Inadequate Preparation for Major - This occurs most often for students who are declared science majors. Weak science/math course selection and/or performance during high school means that these students are not prepared to succeed in our rigorous science courses at PC. A declared Biology major who has only reached Algebra 2 or a Chemistry major who decided not to take Physics during high school will find it hard to gain much support from the committee on admission.

4. Lack of Meaningful Involvement - I say it over and over on this blog, we say it all over the website, at campus information sessions, and at college fairs and high school visits: Academic performance during high school is the most important part of the review process. But it's not the only part of the review, and the non-academic pieces of the application can (and do) sway the decision - both positively and negatively. As we build a strong academic freshman class, we are also building a community, and inviting students who will bring their interests and talents to campus outside of the classroom as well. And again, in a deep and competitive applicant pool, students who are borderline academically and haven't shown involvement in and commitment to high school activities, internships, or part-time jobs simply do not measure up to the many, many students who do make the most of their time outside of the classroom.

5. Negative Attitude in the Application - We don't see this too often, but it does come up a couple of times each year. As one of our counselors puts it, "I wouldn't want this student to be my sister's roommate." A student who puts down others or makes hurtful or inappropriate comments in his or her essay is not someone we want as part of our freshman class at PC.

6. Poor Effort/Presentation of Application - Lots of misspelled words... a one paragraph essay... no PC Supplemental statement... In a competitive pool, a student who clearly hasn't put a lot of effort into the application is not going to be very attractive to us. If a student isn't interested in making a strong presentation in the application, it's hard for us to be interested in having that student on our campus.

***

Updates:

Liberal Arts Honors Program invitations were mailed on December 23. Need-based financial aid packages for Early Action students will be released on or around February 1.

Still to come on this blog in the next couple of weeks: the profile for the students invited Early Action and a look at the Liberal Arts Honors Program.

As I've mentioned a few times in this space, our incredibly strong Early Action applicant pool consisted of nearly 3,500 applications this year, up about 300 from our Early Action pool last year.

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) just over 1,000 spaces in our freshman class and
(2) (literally) thousands more who will be applying Regular Decision (last year, more than 5,600 students applied Regular Decision).

(I wrote a very similar paragraph to that one last year at Early Action.)

Therefore, we have to balance these two things:

First of all, we want to accept as many deserving students as we can Early Action, 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 1,900 acceptances. We feel this number represents 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 1,000 or so that 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 1,900 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 received 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 that student 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 denied a number of students at Early - this is a final decision and students who received 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 him or her 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.

The EA "invited student profile" is as follows:
-Honors/AP level curriculum and an average GPA of an A-minus throughout high school (the average class rank - for students attending high schools that report rank - was 11%).
-Strong curriculum/performance in the Humanities (History and especially English) during high school, in preparation for our liberal arts core curriculum.
-Strong fit to major; for example, declared Biology majors had to show the most demanding math and science curriculum their high school offered, and achieve at a very high level in that curriculum. Many also added outside of the classroom preparation to their strong academic prep (volunteering at a hospital, an internship in a related area, a summer class/experience).
-Genuine commitment to extracurricular activities and/or part-time jobs; and true leadership roles in these activities.
-A well-written, appropriate essay (and Providence College supplemental statement).
-Strong recommendations from high school counselors and teachers.

About 34% of Early Action applicants applied without submitting standardized test scores. For those who did send us their SATs, the average scores for invited students are: 640 Critical Reading, 650 Math, 650 Writing.

***

Many more thoughts on Early Action to come, from the committee on admission meetings to the profile of the students selected to join the Liberal Arts Honors Program. We're also 10 days away from January 15 - so we are currently making the transition to the Regular Decision review process here in the office. Updates on Regular Decision will be coming soon as well.

*Scott

Happy snow day to all of you in the Northeast! (Although I'm not sure that 10+ inches of snow is really making anyone happy on March 2nd, is it??). Some updates on where we are in the Office of Admission as we begin the month of March...

Early Action Invited Students: As we mentioned to you at the PC Up Close welcome event a couple weeks back, you'll be receiving an invitation to join the Providence College Class of 2013 Official Network this week. This social network will provide you with the opportunity to interact online with admission counselors, current PC students, and other members of the Providence College community. Keep an eye on the e-mail address you gave us in your application for that invitation.

Students who have applied Regular Decision: We are moving right along in the admission review process of your applications. This week, admission counselors will be completing our second and third reviews of your application files. We also will begin our committee on admission meetings this week, which will continue for about two weeks. During this time, the counseling staff comes together to carefully consider the students in the middle of our applicant pool for the final spaces in our freshman class. When the committee process is finished, I'll pass along more information about when decision letters will be released. Letters will certainly arrive by April 1.

***

And yes, we're all keeping close watch on those Bracketology predictions for the men's basketball team as we near the end of the regular season. I headed down to New Jersey with a great group of Friar Fanatics yesterday to watch PC beat Rutgers on the road 73-66. Is 10 wins in the Big East going to be enough to make the NCAA Tournament? It was enough to wrap up a bye in the first round of the Big East Tournament... the Friars go for conference win #11 in their regular season finale Thursday night.

The end of the Regular Decision review process is in sight! Stay tuned!

Here's a look at our conference room table as we completed the Regular Decision review process!

Juniors, as you finish up your third year of high school, it's time to turn your attention to your senior year - specifically, the classes you will take during your senior year of high school. As you make your course selections for next year, here are some things to keep in mind that will better prepare you for the college application process; and your college academic experience beginning the following fall.

First of all, we need to dispel the myth that junior year is the most important year in high school and you can just kick back and relax as a senior. Yes, junior year is important, and all admission counselors at all of the schools you'll be applying to will want to see you do well junior year. However, having a strong junior year and then kicking back and "taking senior year off" is not a good decision, as many students' admission decisions are made or broken based on their senior year schedule and performance. Each year, we come across applicants to PC who have had strong junior year but haven't continued with academic challenge senior year, and it is quite difficult to recommend this type student for an acceptance. We consider each applicant in the context of our applicant pool, and in that pool the competitive candidates for admission have continued to take on strong academic challenge senior year.

What do we mean by academic challenge? First of all, we are talking about continuing with a fourth year of all five core subject areas during the senior year. Ideally, this means that students will complete a fourth year of English, Math, Science, History/Social Science, and Foreign Language during their senior year. Academic challenge also means that students are taking advantage of advanced-level (Honors, AP, etc.) courses that are available to them at their high school. Does this mean taking five AP courses senior year? No, it doesn't (although we've seen students do it!). It means taking on an appropriate level of Honors/AP work, and challenging yourself in areas you will do well in. For example, if you are not a strong math student, it's okay not to have AP Calculus as part of your senior schedule. On the other hand, if you want to be a Biology major, we definitely want to see that top level of challenge in your senior math and science classes (hopefully Calc for math and the completion of the Biology/Chemistry/Physics sequence at an advanced level... and if AP Biology or AP Chemistry is an option at your high school, that's a great choice for a Bio major!).

One question that will come up often about the senior schedule goes something like this: "I really don't like Science... I am not going to be a science major in college, so is it okay if I don't take a science class my senior year?" The short answer: maybe. It's not the easiest question to answer generally without seeing the rest of the student's senior year and previous course schedules. Things to keep in mind if you are considering dropping science (or any other subject senior year): What are your previous science classes? Have you completed the sequence of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics? ... What are you taking in place of the science class senior year? Is it a legitimate academic course, a true "double-up" in another subject area, such as completing two history courses or taking Spanish 4 and Latin 4 instead of the science course? ... What does your overall senior schedule look like? Are there "holes" in multiple core academic subject areas (i.e. Are you not completing a fourth year of foreign language in addition to not having a senior science? That is not a good decision!) ... Generally speaking, the most competitive candidates for admission have completed four years of the five core subject areas.

More to come on senior curriculum, but should you have any questions as you select your courses next year, please don't hesitate to call our office and speak with an admission counselor: (401) 865-2535. Good luck with your scheduling!

Mid-November means that the Early Action application review process is underway! As I mentioned last week, the 15 members of the counseling staff completed our annual "reading meeting," and we've each started reading our first batch of applications.

As you may know, we initially review applications by geographic territory at PC; and as you can see from my bio at the top of the page, that means that the applications I have on my desk this afternoon are from Western Massachusetts, the MetroWest area outside of Boston, and the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, and New Mexico. (And, actually, in my office right now, I have applications from all of those areas - except for New Mexico! No applicants from there yet in this year's pool.). We read by geographic territory because it helps us to better understand the context of the high school environment that our students are coming out of. So, I read every application that comes in from Needham High School in Massachusetts, my colleague Christine Hickey reads every application from Chaminade High School on Long Island, and so on... which really helps us to get a sense of the academic environment of your high school.

We begin the review by taking a close look at your high school transcript, and this academic component is the most important piece of your application. As I look over a transcript, the first thing I will consider is a student's curriculum, and ideally I am looking for four years of the five core academic subject areas (English, Math, Science, History, Foreign Language). I am also looking for students who have taken on a level of appropriate academic challenge during high school, taking advantage of advanced level (Honors, AP, IB, college-level) courses when available.

Remember, we are talking about "appropriate challenge," which doesn't mean a student has to take every AP or Honors course his or her high school offers to be a competitive candidate. For example, if you are not a strong math student, we certainly understand why that AP Calculus BC class isn't on your transcript. We always will consider your strength of curriculum in the context of the high school you attend... for example, if you go to a school that doesn't offer an AP Biology class, we aren't going to penalize you for not taking AP Bio! Along with your transcript, your high school has sent our office a Profile, which helps us to understand what courses are available for you to take. Generally speaking across our applicant pool, most students who are invited to PC have taken on an advanced level curriculum over their four years of high school... and, of course, have shown a strong performance in those courses!

More to come on the high school transcript in my next post: we'll talk about how we consider your performance (G.P.A.) hand-in-hand with the curriculum you've taken. And we'll also move beyond the academic information and look at how we handle activities, involvement, leadership, essays, and recommendations. Stay tuned!