It’s December 15th already. Here in the Holy Cross admissions office that means two things. First, that Christmas music is continuously streaming out of Fr. Markey’s office (even as I type this the sounds of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” are drifting across the hall). Two, travel season is officially over and reading season has begun! So what does reading season mean? Well it means that our 13 admissions counselors are spending the majority of their time reading and summarizing thousands of applications.
We all have our preferences for what time of day we like to read best. There are a few of us who like to read first thing in the morning. One crazy staffer gets up a 5 am to get a head start! But then there are a few of us who like reading in the evening better, sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning. But whatever the time we prefer to read, we are each reviewing about 40-50 files a day!
It takes a lot of time, but it can be fun. We finally get to see all the hard work you’ve been doing over the past few months. Reading all of your essays and all of those recommendations, we’re hearing your story, one piece of paper at a time.
Amanda Juriansz
Assistant Director of Community Outreach
Did you break out in a sweat, hyperventilate, or struggle to breathe for a second when you first saw the nearly $50,000 price tag for attending Holy Cross? Without a doubt, $50,000 per year is a hefty price to pay for a college education whether it be in this dire economy or in a vibrant economy of several years ago, and some of you may have decided to not apply because of the sticker shock. However, you might be surprised at how affordable Holy Cross can be for you and your family because of our very comprehensive and very generous 
Every year around this time we take a staff photo which becomes our office holiday card. The card is sent to student volunteers and to guidance counselors we’ve met during our travels. It’s meant as a gesture of thanks for volunteers and one of goodwill toward our high school counterparts. We don Santa hats and 
I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I’ve had students ask me about the 
In the midst of travel season, I awoke with a start at 2:00 AM. A bright red light was flashing in my room and an alarm was blaring in the most annoying way possible. Suddenly, I realized that it was the fire alarm going off and quickly grabbed some shoes, my rental car’s keys and evacuated my hotel room. There was indeed a fire in my hotel during the early hours of that October morning and I spent the better part of my coveted sleeping time sitting in one of the hotel’s many ballrooms. During those groggy three hours between two o’clock and five o’clock in the morning, I met two other women who just happened to be college admissions counselors as well. After comparing notes from “the road” and discussing our various travel territories and office responsibilities, I walked back to my now second hotel room (water damage soaked my first) with some fresh ideas about how to improve how I coordinate my respective programs here at Holy Cross. Needless to say, those three hours were not spent in vain and I was fortunate to come away with a new set of goals for doing my job better than ever before.![alyssa-t[1] brightened](https://blogs.holycross.edu/admissions/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2009/11/alyssa-t1-brightened.jpg)
The summer before I entered Holy Cross, my Class Dean suggested all future Crusaders read Civility by Stephen Carter. My parents bought it for me at the bookstore during Gateways and it sat on my shelf all summer. Two days before I moved into Mulledy Hall I reluctantly read it and, (to my surprise) loved it. During my four years on “the hill,” I was pleased to find that random acts of kindness existed and the Jesuit ideal of “men and women for others” lived strong…..and it still does.
You’ve filled out the Common Application and submitted it online, double and triple checking to make sure that you’ve attached your essay upload. You’ve filled out the paper work at your guidance office requesting that they send along your transcript and recommendation letters to Holy Cross (in Massachusetts, not Indiana). You’re positive that everything has been sent to us. We have it, right? You think we have it. You hope we have it. How do you know if we have it?
With the economy the way it is right now, you might be concerned about your future. Even though you’re just starting the process of applying to college, you can’t help but think, “Where will I be in four years?” or “What will I be able to do with a liberal arts degree?” As an undergraduate Sociology major, I have to admit, I (as well as my parents) often had the same fears. So what does Holy Cross offer to students to help them make the most of their liberal arts experience? Take a look at the 
You’ve filled in all the empty spaces; you’ve identified siblings, parents, CEEB code, guidance counselor fax number and now you’re hovering above the “SUBMIT” button. You’ve checked it two, three, four different times but you still get the sense that it’s not quite ready. Like a cake without frosting, your Common Application is still not ready for consumption. So for the nth time, you go back to check your essay – one last time, you promise yourself.