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June 26, 2006

Coming soon to a mailbox near you

Attention high school seniors:

Next week, a new undergraduate viewbook will be hitting the mailbox (make sure you're on our mailing list). The viewbook is our flagship publication. Sure, we send postcards, brochures about different aspects of college life at Case, etc., but the viewbook really encapsulates a lot of what you need to know about Case.

This year, our viewbook has almost 50% more pages than last year, but the really exciting thing is that it has several times more stories about students, and more diverse perspectives on the Case student experience.

It has been a huge undertaking...
1000+ emails
70+ students interviewed
6+ days of photography
45 students featured (last time I counted)
the result... priceless, of course!

Thinking about the process, there are three things I would like to share.

First. We mention a lot of senior Capstone projects in the viewbook. I did a senior project back in the day, also at a college where everybody did one. In addition to being a rite of passage to finish the thing, it was also relevant to the working world. Everytime I embark on a large project, there's this part of me that says, "No problem. I've been doing this since I was 21." I guess that was my experiential learning, and how it built my confidence.

Second. The great thing about Case's Office of Undergraduate Admission is the way we collaborate. Many heads really are better than one. So much more creativity flows when there is an exchange between people who bring different strengths and perspectives to the table. I worked very closely with our designer to produce the viewbook, but along the way, many people contributed to the creative process - students, faculty and staff.

And it's not just our office here at Case where that spirit of collaboration lives. You'll see it in the new viewbook - our students do some really amazing things in groups, especially interdisciplinary groups.

Third. Any project this big has moments when it just seems like too much. The thing that's pulled me through, the thing that's helped me to refocus, are all the fabulous students who have taken the time to let us feature them in the viewbook.

So many of them are doing substantial experiential learning far earlier than senior year. One kid got some great, real-world experience his first semester! One of the students who was interviewed but didn't go in the viewbook because of a schedule conflict is just finishing her sophomore year and has been counseling people being tested for the HIV virus at the Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland.

So that's all I can tell you right now. I don't want to detract from that moment when you open your mailbox, pull out our viewbook, and get sucked into all the possiblities and opportunities at Case that our students are going to show you.

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June 18, 2006

An admission counselor's lens

I have been meaning to comment on an article that PD columnist Sam Fulwood III wrote a couple of weeks ago.

At first glance this column might have you merely contemplating how Adam’s generation receives their news or their thoughts on newspapers. I viewed Sam’s piece through the lens as a Case admission counselor.

In order to meet a part of this blog’s original mission—giving you some insight on the admission office and how we go about our work—I will try to relay what jumped off the newsprint as I read the article. (note: I did read this in the paper—but confess to emailing the web link around our office)

Adam, whom I don’t know, seems to capture so much of what we look for as we recruit students. It is important to note that we look beyond the transcript and standardized test scores—we look for students that are dynamic, that are leaders and that will add flavor to the campus. The fact that he was able to start a couple businesses while in high school is impressive. Also, he shows up to class to not simply take notes—he shows up to participate.

Fulwood’s Media Literacy class is part of the SAGES curriculum at Case. The design requires (and thrives upon) the engagement of the faculty and the student in the learning process.

Finally, just the fact that Sam is on campus teaching shows how Case takes advantage of the resources of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Many of the University Seminars in the SAGES curriculum are taught/facilitated by experts from beyond our undergraduate faculty.

In addition to having Mr. Fulwood teach these seminars we draw from institutions like University Circle institutions, the Rock Hall and folks from many different walks of life beyond just academia.

Posted by jbg15 at 11:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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 01:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack