Welcome to Reading Season!

Well, it’s been a crazy three weeks or so as the January 15 regular decision deadline has come and gone, leaving support staff inundated with sorting essays, importing test scores and common applications, and printing golden “complete” letters, informing anxious students we do indeed have all the components of their application. Soon after the kind ladies upstairs work their magic, the various pieces arrive in our reading tool in a .pdf file ordered common application, transcript, Whitman supplement, teacher recommendations, and finally, interview notes. The switch to electronic reading is relatively recent; I just graduated from Whitman last May and when I started as a student worker five years ago compiling and sorting the paper files was a major part of my job. Now students digitize any and all paper we receive.

Anyway, back to the present; while it would be a neat trick if the completed files automatically migrated from upstairs to officers’ various computers, it’s just not that simple. Due to major discrepancies in the number of applicants from various geographic locations, not all officers are able to “first read” all the students from their territories. While PJ, the California officer, is an absolute file master, there is simply no way he can keep up with the massive number of Cali applications, and so officers with less populated applicant territories, like myself, pick up the slack, especially if we’ve had past interaction with the student. These decisions are made by the all-powerful kings of distribution,  Josh and PJ. For the most part, however, the majority of any territories files, even Seattle and California, are first read by the area officer. After the initial vote, the file is distributed again to a “second reader,” and from there a decision is made, either admit, deny, committee, or waitlist.

If the two readers disagree on their votes or an application hits a committee trigger (recent C, test scores or GPA below a certain threshold, to give a few examples), but at least one officer wants to admit the student anyway, the applicant will be discussed in a committee of 6-10 admission officers in early to mid-March. Knowing all this, students can rest assured their application is receiving a thorough vetting.

Right now distribution is really beginning to heat up as more and more files are processed.  Batches of files go out twice  a week in groups between 15-60 at a time, and are due back one week later.  One thing I’m really loving about reading season so far, besides all the amazing applicants, is the fact officers are given one whole day and two half-days out of the office each week to focus on reading (it’s hard to focus on anything for too long here).  Kicking back with a good essay on The Great Gatsby and a cup of coffee on your own couch hardly feels like work. Of course, I might change my mind hundreds of files and a few months later…

Apply to Whitman & Lauren’s Favorite Class

Don’t forget the regular decision postmark deadline is January 15, and if you are applying for need-based aid, the FAFSA and CSS profile should be on their way by February 1. Don’t hesitate to contact your area admission officer or use the Ask a Parent or Ask an Alum pages for questions.

This week a Lauren McCullough, a senior admission intern and star politics major from Canby, OR, shares her favorite class:

Every time I think about classes that have been really important to me, I always come back to a class I took last year, Politics 363: the Genealogies of Political Economy.

Prior to the class, I had taken courses from a wide array of departments (this happens when you change your major too much). I hadn’t taken a lot of Politics courses, and when I had, they were always environmentally related. So before taking Genealogies of Political Economy, my approach was something like this: “Politics? Ick. Theory? Gross. Political theory? No thanks.” But the professor who taught this course is my absolute favorite instructor. He has this knack for pushing you and bringing out the best dimensions of everyone in class, so I really wanted to give it a try.

The course was seminar style with an insane amount of reading (200 pages of dense, theoretical material for each class), high expectations for the quality of in-class contributions, and weekly essays. The course studied the development of capitalism, starting in the 1600s with Adam Smith, and ending with texts on current issues, like the 2008 financial crash.

I get that this class could sound boring (Capitalism? really?). However, this class perfectly merged theory and practice into praxis, and it was fascinating. We examined how discourse works; how the ideas of one theorist influenced thinkers to follow; how this discourse in turn gets shaped into policies and infused into daily life. The course taught me how to critique, how to discuss a text with confidence, how to read well.

I loved this class so much, I re-declared as a Politics major, and I’ve been talking with other professors in the department about going to graduate school in Politics.

So why go to a liberal arts college anyway?

I could go on and on about the diverse skill set of critical analysis, problem-solving, written and oral communication, and collaboration Whitman grads bring to the table every moment of their lives, whether it’s Simeon Osborn ’80, trial lawyer of the year, stepping into the courtroom, or Curt Bowen ’07 developing new sustainable agricultural practices in partnership with Guatemalan farmers. However, given my obvious bias, I’ll refrain and humbly pass along a more independent testimonial.

Here is A.G. Lafley, longtime Chairman of Proctor & Gamble, explaining why he believes the liberal arts are so valuable: “A Liberal Education: Preparation for Career Success“

If you’re still not convinced, or would just like to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn more about Whitman, check out the Ask a Parent and Ask an Alum pages. Parents of prospective students are encouraged to use this great resource as well!

Opportunity for Application Advice & Admission Update

As high schools and colleges across the country release students for winter break, it truly becomes crunch time for finishing college applications (remember, the postmark deadline is January 1 for Early Decision II and January 15 for Regular).  Next week, in an effort to help seniors complete the strongest application possible while minimizing stress, The Choice, the New York Times blog on admission and financial aid in higher education, is hosting a live Facebook chat with three expert college counselors from across the country. A different counselor will take questions and offer advice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings.  Find out the details here.

Early Decision letters will be mailed next Monday morning, and students may view their status online at midnight Monday night. Thanks again for being such fantastic applicants! We are excited to welcome the first members of what promises to be another absolutely spectacular class of Whitties!

A few words on the Supplement

Isn’t the Common Application great?  All those schools you can apply to in one shot, it makes the college application process so much less daunting.  While this is true (to an extent) many of you are thinking, or maybe yelling out loud, “What about all those supplements?!?”  Aghh, the bitter sweetness of only needing to type your counselor’s e-mail address, Freshman extracurricular activities and expected spring schedule once.

Supplements are personal, they ask probing questions and they require thought and time.  Maybe right now in the middle of December you don’t feel like you have much of either to spare.  I encourage you to dig deep.  These questions are asked for a reason and they are important.  Trust me, as much as you do not want to write a meaningless essay, my colleagues and I do not want to read them.  Yet, year after year we keep asking the questions, because they are important.  We want to know these things about you, in the case of Whitman: how you perceive diversity, why you are interested in our community of 1500 students in Walla Walla, and lastly how you think and express your thoughts.

For some clues on why these questions are important to us take a look at our website, Google these topics, page through that Whitman Admission handout one more time with “different eyes”, ask us some questions of your own.  See what we have to say, maybe you will learn something, you may get intrigued and excited, you may be struck by inspiration for your supplemental essays.  We want to see if and why these topics are important to you too.  Be deliberate, be concise, and give us a view into you and your motivations.  There is no “right” answer!  So stop taking the safe route and writing on what you think it is.

The Common Application has 456 member institutions; at the heart of each is a unique school and community.  This is what the supplements try to get at.  This is why we ask these pesky questions.  In your answers we hope to honestly find a little of Whitman and what we value.  Good luck Class of 2016, we look forward to reading your applications!

Senior Interns: They still go to class

Not all the staff in the Office of Admission are admission officers. There are visit coordinators, IT specialists, support staff, and even students. One special group of these students are the senior interns. These brave students balance their intense academic workloads and a million and one activities with holding significant responsibility here in the office. Perhaps you were interviewed by one during your visit! One of the six interns, Zach Duffy, shares his a bit about himself and his class schedule  below:

Hello, world! First, a brief introduction: My name is Zach Duffy and I’m a senior Politics major here at Whitman. I work as a Senior Admissions intern, which means that I’ll be reading your applications and may interview you if you come to visit campus. I serve as a senator in ASWC, our student government, DJ at KWCW, our campus radio station, and have started a club this year to engage students in local politics. I’m also a member of Phi Delta Theta, one of the fraternities on campus.

This being early December at Whitman, I’m writing this blog while sitting in the Quiet Room of Penrose Library, our fantastic 24/7 campus library. Finals are barreling closer, so I have about two hundred pages of reading to do for my Politics senior seminar and Politics of International Hierarchy classes over the next few days. Thankfully a few of my friends and I have staked our places in comfy reading chairs right by the Quiet Room fireplace.

Speaking of classes, I should probably get to the point of this blog.  Every student at Whitman generally takes four courses a semester, and mine are:

• Senior Seminar in Politics. Senior Seminar is the capstone course for politics majors and an exploration of some of the most influential and thought-provoking political texts. We just finished reading Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, an examination of how power functions in our modern justice system. In the second half of the semester, we’ll start planning for our senior theses – thirty-five page papers that are the culmination of our time at Whitman and our chance to really engage with our individual political interests.
• Politics of International Hierarchy.  This course is taught by Shampa Biswas, one of the professors at Whitman that you always hear great things about – so much so that I am getting my first chance to take a course with her this year. The course is all about how some societies or nations end up establishing some understanding of themselves as more important or advanced than other countries.  Our first reading was of several Dr. Seuss stories, including the Butter Battle Book, which I definitely didn’t understand as being about nuclear deterrence as a kid!
• Secularization of Whitman. Whitman was founded in memory of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, two missionaries who helped to establish Walla Walla and Washington State in the mid-1800s.  So the college had a strong Christian influence in the beginning of its history. Students had to attend a church service in a college chapel every Sunday, recite prayers in class, and  study the Bible. But Whitman College today is a decidedly secular institution, although many religious students attend. This course is all about the question of how that change came about and how the trend of secularization was affecting the United States at large. As part of my class, I get to read a history of Whitman that a former professor wrote. Did you know that Mark Twain was one of Whitman’s first donors? He gave $20 to the college in the 1800s.
• Introduction to Macroeconomics.  I’ve spent two summers working in Washington D.C. and have come to understand just how much economic concerns influence the decisions that are made in our country. My macroeconomics course is helping me to more fully understand phenomena like the stock market crash in 2007/8 and the high unemployment in the U.S. today.

If you have any questions or comments for me this year, don’t hesitate to comment on this blog or contact me at the Office of Admission!

Mark Twain & the Essay

For admission officers fall is travel season and winter is reading season. At Whitman two officers read each application, scrolling through 30-pages on laptops and writing comments on the electronic “vote sheet”. We review apps “holistically”, meaning that we take into account a student’s transcript (curriculum and grades), writings, passions and activities, letters of recommendation and—lastly—test scores.

My favorite part of the application is the Common Application Personal Essay, which gives a student multiple subject options.  An excellent essay makes my day and distinguishes the student from other applicants. I have a file of “essay keepers”, writings that knocked my socks off and that I keep to re-read when times slow down.

Memorable essays are always well-written and can be on any topic. The best ones tell me who the student is, what makes them tick, what they’re passionate about, how they interact with peers, parents and pariahs. Some are humorous (but it takes a talented writer to nail humor), some take a surprising turn, some are heart-felt, some make me shed a tear (but don’t try to make me cry!). Don’t try to impress, just be honest. Don’t tell me what you do unless it explains who you are. Don’t use big words when little words better convey what you have to say. Conciseness trumps verbosity. When in doubt follow Mark Twain’s advice:

“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English….don’t let fluff and flowers creep in. [Adjectives] weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective, a diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.” (Letter to D.W. Bowser, March 20, 1880)

Congratulations to all ED I Applicants!

Congratulations to all those who completed Early Decision applications this week! Take a step back and be proud of all your hard work. And don’t worry if your web adviser says you’re missing a certain credential you’ve already sent in. Due to the usual flood of application pieces it will take us the rest of the week to enter  everything into the system and for web adviser to update.

Now, as Whitties hit the the library prior to their week-long Thanksgiving break, the officer staff will begin to read applications. This is an exciting time for all staff as the payoff of the admissions team’s collective effort during the long fall travel season begins to show.

Decisions will be mailed the week of December 19 at the latest. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We’ll be kicking back with some pumpkin pie and what are sure to be wonderful college essays.

Applying Early Decision & Financial Aid

Now that the calendar has turned to November, many seniors are working furiously on their college applications in preparation for applying “early” to one or more institutions. While Whitman does not have an Early Action (non-binding) program, we do offer two Early Decision (binding) application programs for students who consider Whitman to be their top choice. I frequently hear a student or parent tell me that Whitman is their top choice, but they’re nervous about applying Early Decision because of concern about financial aid. While this is certainly a real and valid concern for many families, let me help clarify a few points of confusion about ED and financial aid.

1) Each year, we admit and enroll a number of students who demonstrate financial need through our Early Decision program.
2) An admitted student to Whitman through Early Decision will receive the same need-based financial aid award as he/she would in Regular Decision months later.
3) While applying Early Decision is a binding agreement between the student, parents, counselor and Whitman College, if the student and his/her parents do not feel their financial aid award will afford them the opportunity to attend Whitman, we will release them from the binding agreement.

Essentially, here’s how I explain the pros/cons of Early Decision to a family concerned about financial aid: families who are considering Early Decision (or ED), but know that finances will be a critical factor in their decision of where to attend can still apply ED. Your family simply needs to assess very frankly what their situation and priorities are before deciding whether to apply Regular or Early Decision. If Whitman is your first-choice school and your family is willing and able to determine if it can afford Whitman without comparing ours to other financial aid packages, then Early Decision is a very viable option. If, however, your family knows that they will want to compare need-based and merit-based financial aid awards from multiple institutions, and decide thereafter how much they can afford based on your preferences as a student – then the path for your family might be Regular Decision.

The key is that your financial aid award ought to be the same, whether you apply Regular or Early Decision. The question for your family is how important it will be to compare costs from one institution to another. If you as a family are comfortable saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ solely on the basis of whether or not you can afford Whitman with the financial aid award in front of you, Early Decision allows certainty much earlier in the year at the school you are most excited about. If you have further questions or concerns about Early Decision, I encourage you to contact me or any of my colleagues in the admission office. I hope to see many of your applications in the coming weeks.

“Why Whitman?” Part III

Our third entry in the “Why Whitman?” series comes from Lauren McCullough, a Politics major from Wilsonville, Oregon. Happy writing to all you ED applicants working on your own Why Whitman essays!

When I applied to college, I knew there were a few qualities I had to have in my college experience. The first was a small school with a strong sense of community, so I exclusively considered tiny liberal arts colleges. I was interested in all things Humanities and Social Sciences, so it didn’t make sense for me to pick a school based on only one of those departments. Actually, I guess the requirement was a well-rounded college strong in all academic departments. Looking back, this was an excellent decision: I’ve changed my major four times before happily settling down in the Politics department!

After these basic size and academic considerations, the student body was the most important component to me. I wanted to be a part of an eclectic, intelligent student body where people were also quirky and friendly.

I already knew Whitman fit this profile well because both my brother and sister attended. However, not surprisingly, I thought I would never go to the same school as both my siblings. Yet, when I went and visited schools, Whitman stood out for me above the rest. Current students were all friendly and the professors were fascinating during Admitted Students Day and my time there really convinced me that Whitman was a school I would be happy and not at all seen as anyone’s little sister.

I was also comforted by the fact that my two siblings, who have very different personalities and interests both thrived at Whitman. My sister was involved with theater and art and majored in Psychology. My brother, on the other hand, majored in Philosophy, played varsity soccer, was active in Greek life, and tutored local elementary students.

Ultimately, I chose Whitman because it felt right, academically and socially, and because I was confident that I would be happy here. When I was forced to think about where I truly wanted to spend the next four years of my life, Whitman stood out as the right place; almost four years later I’m glad to say I was right!