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June 14, 2006
My First Interview Since October 31, 2005
Following an almost 5 month maternity and disability (broken leg) leave, I returned last week to my job here in Undergraduate Admission. I had really been looking forward to being back at work.
My 4 month old daughter Alexandra is the sun around which my household orbits, but a scintillating conversationalist she is not (yet). Given my anticipation, I was dismayed that after being back at work a few days, I felt such ennui. What was wrong? It took some reflection for me to realize that despite being back at the office, I had yet to engage in any actual recruiting activities.
I had been analyzing data and attending meetings and planning my travel and writing performance reviews, but I had not spoken to a single prospective student or parent. So today I decided to remedy this and signed up to interview a young woman from NYC during one of my "meeting-free" times.
I am happy to report that this student and her mother were the perfect antidote to my dissatisfaction. As a Case alum married to a Case alum and my working in admission, I never grow tired of sharing my passion for Case. And when I meet students who have passions of their own to share with me, it's tough to stop talking.
Today's interview lasted for an hour and 45 minutes, and we could have kept going. This very intelligent, self-assured young woman is interested in our art history ("to better understand the history of architecture") and urban studies programs because she has a strong desire to enrich geographic areas and allow people to live in surroundings that uplift and inspire them. We discussed the history of urban (mis)planning, particularly in NYC, and our mutual appreciation for Habitat for Humanity. We also shared our passion for photography and discussed how she can balance that with academics and varsity athletics at Case.
Track coach (and my neighbor) Kathy Lanese had met with the family earlier in the day and made them feel special with her warmth and a parting hug. The mother of this student brought up the insider guides' attestation that Case has no social life, which is one of my favorite topics. I think it is virtually impossible to have a social life unless you, yourself, are willing to be at least the tiniest bit social. (Time spent on myspace doesn't count.) Yet there were students when I was an undergrad (back in the Pleistecene era) who spent their out-of-class hours locked in their rooms playing video games, but complained that they couldn't get a date.
The next generation of these students are now engaged in virtual relationships of every kind, but still love to kvetch about how impossible it is to meet anyone on campus. Somehow, both then and now at Case, people meet and match and even sometimes marry.
But I digress, because this interviewee would have no difficulty with a social life at Case or anywhere else. She was excited by the flexibility of our course selection as much as by the new dorms and the six lane track that the dorms encircle. She felt like our campus was the perfect blend of urban living with a collegiate community ("like Columbia, not like NYU") and seemed impressed by my analogy between our Emerald Necklace (Cleveland's Metroparks system) and how you could feel hundreds of miles away from civilization, just like you can in parts of Central Park.
I encouraged her to apply Early Action, so that she would know her admission and scholarship decision by January 1st. She was surprised that unlike Early Decision, she would still have until May 1st to finalize her decision. So will she come to Case? I hope so. I look forward to assisting her through the application process. But today's interview left me renewed, because this young woman is one of hundreds of students who will come through our doors and to our Hometown Interviews and college fair tables in the upcoming months, each with his or her passions to share, and we have the incredible good fortune to aid them on their journeys.
What a great job!
Posted by kas45 at June 14, 2006 01:59 PM
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