Familiar Landscape
At this moment in time, with deadlines looming and to-do lists of to-do lists, frankly, the college admissions world is looking pretty normal. Around the next corner may well be a downed bridge that will plunge us back into the abyss, but for the moment, as we emerge from the long, dark tunnel, the scenery is oddly familiar. The bus is moving a little faster than last year, but even that is par for the course.
Two weeks ago, I needed to advise two seniors that they had been named National Merit Semi-Finalists, so I emailed them and asked them to stop by my office on their way into the building the following morning. Then I pulled out my tape measure. Six feet from my chair to the chair on the right; eight feet from me to the two chairs on the left; and six feet from the chair on the left to the chair on the right. With the door open, my two air scrubbers running and our masks on, I could address them both together in my office. Since then, I’ve had half a dozen individual in-person meetings with seniors. It feels great.
(Running through my head, to the Beatles tune: Eight feet away; it's just enough to keep us safe…)
While I cherish the in-person encounters, I realize that I also love Zoom meetings. I love being able to meet with kids and with parents even if we are in vastly different places. (I mean that geographically, though it’s true figuratively, as well.) I am a rather animated talker, however, and I have had to learn to adapt my gesticulations to the limited field of view of the camera. I can live with the adjustment, for the time being.
“Long days; short weeks.” That’s Gene Campbell’s take on how the Upper School boys are reacting to the in-person experience in BrowningFlex. In a webinar last week, the Dean of Admission at Williams College noted that 75% of their students were back on campus. She then added that “wherever they are, all of their classes are remote.” On campus and online. Sounds familiar. It appears we are in good company. The boys may grumble about lunch portions, but they keep showing up because they value the human interaction with peers and faculty, regardless of the limitations. Exactly as we had hoped.
I wondered in the spring how colleges would handle rep visits. Every fall, college admission officers take to the road and visit thousands of high schools around the country—portable info sessions. They are costly endeavors, both financially and emotionally, as the reps leave partners and children behind, often for weeks on end. So admission offices have been cutting back. Ten years ago, I had 50 to 60 reps come through in a span of eight weeks; last year it was just over 30. It was costly for me, as well, since I met with every rep myself; but it was also extremely rewarding. An opportunity to catch up with old friends and, to be honest, an opportunity to train some of those new to the business. “Now, you understand that the boy you are reviewing this year is not the boy you will get. Your task is to figure out who that boy will be next year. It’s a lot like judging a baking contest when the cakes are still in the oven.”
I feared that the rep visit would be a casualty of the virus. But, as I wrote in the spring, colleges want to go back to “business as usual” as fast as possible, so rep visits, like most admissions offerings, merely went virtual. I opened up appointment slots on one of our search platforms and sent the link to a number of our regular visitors. As of today I have 40 reps visiting. In many cases the rep, typically the first reader of a Browning application, is meeting with one or two boys, almost like a personal interview. I do miss being able to walk them around; they are always impressed with our facility and with our boys. At the same time, they are not all sitting in my office, so I can turn the boys over to the rep and do other work.
In the spring, there was a great deal of speculation about Early Decision, but things look pretty normal from this side of the deadline. Most schools are sticking to their standard dates, though Cornell and Tufts have graciously moved theirs back, giving overworked teenagers, teachers, and counselors an extra two weeks to prepare. Will schools admit more kids early? Fewer? Most say they are aiming for “usual” but will reserve judgement until they have a chance to review the pool. So, like most of the questions I have been fielding about this wacky admissions season, I’ll have a clearer answer at the end of the process. “Ask me in June,” I say.