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Decision Day

AnnMcDermott.BLOG2This has been a groundbreaking year. Students, guidance counselors, and college admissions alike dealt with changes to applications during the fall. In an effort to keep more clarity in our applications, we added a writing supplement. And, also for the first time, we released all of our admissions decisions online. With an exciting push of a button today, we witnessed over 2,000 students view their decisions within 90 minutes — and many more as the evening wore on.

This year’s applicant pool was once again very strong, so the competition for gaining admission was particularly intense. We are excited to welcome our chosen Class of 2018, a truly special achievement, though it was not a quick nor easy decision-making process. As always, we spent over five weeks in full-day Committee, opening every application in front of our admissions staff of 13, and often opening essays, transcripts, and recommendations multiple times for the most complete evaluation possible.

We were struck by poignant responses to our additional writing sample, asking what was the best advice you ever received. We were impressed by what your guidance counselor and teachers had to say about you. We were dazzled by your leadership and floored by what we heard from you in interviews. We were challenged to pick from among 5,300 talented students, yet we remain proud of the ones we have chosen.

The next five weeks will be very busy and very exciting for those admitted applicants — now official members of the Holy Cross community, if you will have us. As you consider your choices, we hope you will join us on campus so we can help you celebrate your impressive achievements. From a variety of visiting options to our Accepted Student Open House to our virtual representation on social media, there are a number of ways to engage with the College.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us (800-442-2421) with any questions or concerns. We are excited to welcome you to the Holy Cross community!

Ann McDermott, ’79

Director of Admissions
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Application Deadline Extended

AnnMcDermott.BLOG2This year, we asked our applicants to respond to the question, “What is the best advice you’ve ever received?”

Many students have chosen to reflect on the importance of compassion and kindness. Others have sung the praises of hard work and determination. We have been inspired by the advice that has been relayed to us, and would like to put it to good use.

Given the unusual circumstances and challenges many of our prospective students have faced with the Common Application this year, we are extending our application deadline to January 26th.

 

We hope that you will appreciate this kindness, and complete your application with determination. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Ann McDermott

Director of Admissions
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Oops, I Missed the Interview Opportunity

With all that’s going on in your senior year and the stress of college applications, you might not have noticed that Holy Cross offered an opportunity for a personal interview (or you may have  called and discovered that you missed the deadline!)

Don’t fret too much! If for some reason you weren’t able to interview at Holy Cross, we’d still like for you to take the opportunity to tell us a little more about yourself. What might we have learned in an interview?  What do you love about Holy Cross?  Recently won an award, became captain of the basketball team, or completed a spectacular service project? We want to hear about it. Write us an e-mail and share everything you would have talked about in an interview. Reconnect with an Admissions Counselor you met on the road or at an information session. When we sit down and open up a file, a lot of the information we have comes from other people (teachers, guidance counselors, etc.) This process is about you and we want to hear your voice as much as possible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Nicole Zervos ‘09
Assistant Director of Admissions
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Happy Deadline Day!

I’ve just stepped away from all the Deadline Day festivities here in the Admissions Office at Holy Cross (sorry for all the noise) so I’m going to make this entry brief. I have to rush back to the party as the Deadline Day piñata is just about to get smashed. If I don’t get there in time, everyone else will gather up all the AP Bio’s and captains of mock trial before I get any.

For the most part, our Deadline Day celebrations are probably much like the ones that you’ve had your entire life – we show up to the office in our jammies, sprint around the file room looking to see what the Deadline Day elves have left us while we’ve been sleeping. It really is quite a thrill.

But, more importantly, Deadline Day reminds us that we’ve got a big job ahead – logging all these applications and documents into the computer system, reading them and then voting a decision. Tough work, indeed, but one we’ve been looking forward to all fall.

Oh, wait, I’ve got to run. I can hear the rest of my co-workers beginning to sing my favorite Deadline Day carol – O Deadline Day. Will you sing it with me? (remember, it’s sung to the tune, O Christmas Tree . . . or O Holy Cross, whichever you like)

O Deadline Day! O Deadline Day!

More a postmark than an actual day.

O Deadline Day! O Deadline Day!

PC, Mac or handwritten.

From near and far students submit

Letters of rec and transcripts.

O Deadline Day! O Deadline Day!

Reading them all to find a fit.

Andrew N Carter
Associate Director of Admissions
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Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…or so they say. With the busy holiday season quickly approaching, we all have a lot on our minds – what present to buy Dad, what to wear to that holiday party next weekend, where to spend New Year’s Eve…w and the list goes on. While most of us are stressing about these menial details, all of you high school seniors are most likely stressing about the ever-looming college application deadlines. I won’t preach to you about the importance of meeting said deadlines, but instead offer a friendly reminder of our upcoming deadlines:

December 15th – Deadline for EARLY DECISION applications

December 29th – Deadline for ON-CAMPUS INTERVIEWS (Regular Decision applicants)

January 15th – Deadline for REGULAR DECISION applications

February 1st – Deadline for FINANCIAL AID applications

Hopefully these deadlines will allow you to plan ahead and enjoy this busy time of the year. Have a wonderful holiday season everyone!

Lauren D. Thornton

Assistant Director of Admissions
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Admissions and Additions

I submitted my Regular Decision application way back in October, why will I not hear the decision until April?

Great question.  Although math is not my strong suit, I will put on my Stat. Hat and consult with the Fraction Faction to provide you with an answer:

Holy Cross will receive roughly 7,000 applications this year.  Each application is carefully read by two members of our thirteen member admissions staff between January 1st and February 15th.  Therefore, each counselor must read ((7,000 apps x 2 reads)/12 counselors) applications over that six week period.  I will not go any further with the math in terms of applications read per day, but I will note that a typical 5 day/8 hours a day work weeks go out the window in the Admissions world during reading season (and travel season for that matter).

So, why don’t we hear on February 15th?

Full of great questions, are we?  Well, the process does not stop after reading season is over.  Our twelve person Admissions staff then goes to Committee through the end of March to revisit every single file to make our final Admissions decisions as a group (majority rules – all votes counted evenly).  Therefore, (12 counselors discussing 7,000 apps/6 weeks) = (396 cups of coffee/x bathroom breaks)+(8,326 insightful questions asked + 178 Counselor calls) A.K.A. The creation of the Class of 2015.

So, please remember that we are working on par with Santa’s elves this holiday/application season before you pick up the phone to inquire if we have made a decision on your Regular Decision application yet.  My advice: Munch on Holiday cookies, enjoy time with your family and friends, and leave the application stress to us.

Dan Weagle ’08

Admissions Counselor
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Deadline Day

6a00e54ed0db8e8833010536f8f30b970b-800wiHappy Deadline Day, everybody!

What a wonderful holiday it is – today is the deadline to apply for first year admission to College of the Holy Cross. Like many of you, we are in the midst of our Deadline Day celebrations. Here in the Holy Cross Admissions Office, we are eating the traditional Deadline Day breakfast – coffee and eraser shavings; we are exchanging the traditional Deadline Day gifts – mechanical pencils, carpal tunnel survival kits and prescription glasses; we have even performed the traditional Deadline Day circle dance around the Deadline Day tree. (Well, it’s more a stack of applications than it is a tree . . .)

So, now that Deadline Day is here, we are afforded the opportunity to reflect back upon this last recruiting cycle – several thousand admissions interviews, over a thousand high schools visited, 120,000 airline miles and nearly 400 hours of free Wi-Fi logged at Paneras located around the continental United States. It’s been an exhausting and exhilarating spring, summer and fall. Now all that’s left to do is to read, read, present, discuss, debate and then finally vote. A month from now, our committee process will begin selecting and completing the next class of Crusaders. But before we can do that, we first must read. And read. Every application. Twice.

So for now, I will bid adieu and return to my stack of applications. If you call my office in the next few weeks and don’t get an answer, know that I’m reading applications somewhere else. And if you find yourself in a Panera anytime soon and you see a spectacled, wrist-brace wearing, mechanical-pencil using academic surrounded by green folders and eraser shavings – don’t laugh. Just know that we appreciate calculus, we appreciate early morning swim team practice, we appreciate tech crew and we’d appreciate one of those enormous chocolate chip cookies.

 

Andrew N. Carter
Associate Director of Admissions
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I Can’t Afford Holy Cross

TranKim-Senior.BLOG2Did 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 financial aid package.

We are a school that is fully committed to meeting every family’s demonstrated financial need in order to attend Holy Cross.  In essence, if you are admitted into Holy Cross and demonstrate financial need, you can be assured that we will meet that need by 100%.

There are two caveats to that policy.  First, the need we determine is based on federal guidelines and looks at your family’s household income and asset values and is not based on what you determine to be your personal financial need.  Second, we only consider you for financial aid if you submit all of your paperwork to us on time by February 1st at the latest.  There are two important forms that you need to submit to Holy Cross in order to be considered for financial assistance:  The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the CSS Profile.  To access these forms, please visit our financial aid site.   In addition, if you come from a single parent household, the CSS Profile will require you to submit the Non-Custodial Parent form that asks for financial information from your non-custodial parent.  Also, if your family owns a business or a farm, the CSS Profile will require you to submit a Business/Farm supplement that asks  income information from these two sources.  If either of these circumstances applies to you, it is very, very important that you submit the additional information that is asked of you.  If for some reason, you are not able to get the required information (i.e. your non-custodial parent has never been in the picture), you need to contact the financial aid office immediately to explain your situation and get instructions on how to proceed.  If you submit all the required forms in completion to Holy Cross, you will be fully considered for financial assistance from Holy Cross.

With all this said, at the end of the day, you should never let a college’s price tag deter you from applying.  Every college has its own way of disseminating financial assistance and scholarship funds and you never know what you may qualify for and ultimately receive for financial assistance.  The most expensive schools can sometimes be the most affordable schools because financial aid provides you with enough assistance to lower the price tag.  Instead, you should choose a school that has the programs and the atmosphere that is the best fit for you, apply to those schools, complete all the necessary forms for financial assistance and scholarships and then see what you end up receiving in financial assistance.  Once you get all your packages, you can sit down and decide what schools are financially viable for you and your family.

Tran Kim-Senior

Assistant Director of Admissions

Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment
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Application Deadlines: Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute!

LynnVerrecchia.BLOG2Every 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 Holy Cross gear and enthusiastically grin for the camera. Our smiles show that we love our jobs and that we truly wish those around us a wonderful holiday season.

The behind-the-scenes picture is a bit more harried. Our hectic fall travel season and various in-office responsibilities push the holiday card to the back burner for several weeks. It is typically all but forgotten until one attentive staff member points out that the holidays are in fact around the corner. We scramble to find a day when everyone will be in the office and a time when interviews are not scheduled. We raid the bookstore and scrounge for purple scarves that have not already been scooped up by students and visitors. We cringe at the gloomy skies that insist on threatening rain on picture day, because we know that rescheduling is not an option. We pay for expedited shipping and keep our eyes fixed on the mailbox. We stay late to print labels and address envelopes. We send the card out with hours to spare. Then, and only then, do we sit back and enjoy the picture ourselves.

In the end, our students and colleagues see only the final product. They smile at our gesture and pin our photo to their bulletin boards. They appreciate what we have done. The frantic nature of picture day does not show. Only we know that making this picture happen was a race to the finish.

 Last minute application filers deal with similar stresses. The computer suddenly crashes; a teacher assigns a major project; a family emergency crops up. That essay is due tomorrow and suddenly the conditions are not ideal. Just as we learn (and relearn) every year, the applicant learns that a looming deadline leaves little room for error. Though your final product is meant for others, the process is for you. Aim for more than just a strong outcome–try to allow for a positive experience along the way.

Holy Cross’ Early Decision application deadline is December 15. The Regular Decision deadline is January 15.

 

Lynn Verrecchia

Assistant Director of Admissions
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The Do’s of the Application Process

tranThis list is the culmination of my own experiences as an admissions officer as well as of my colleagues in this office and other admissions offices.  As you go through them, you may have a lot of “duh” moments and most of these are very much common sense but it’s usually the most obvious things that are the least visible to us.  With that said, I hope this list is useful to you as you focus in on the application process.

  • Meet all deadlines for Early Decision, Early Action, Regular Decision.  Not meeting a deadline reflects badly on your ability to be responsible and may make an institution feel like you aren’t that interested.  It may also reduce your chances of getting in because the class is getting filled and you may be too late to get a spot.  If you have an extraordinary circumstances, you should let an admissions officer know in writing or by phone so that we can take that into consideration. 
  • File your financial aid paperwork early and by the deadline at the latest.  Holy Cross requires both the FAFSA and the the CSS Profile forms to be considered for financial aid.  The FAFSA form is not available until January 1st but you and one of your parents can go ahead and file for a FAFSA Pin Number that will serve as your signatures on the forms.  The longer you wait, the bigger the risk that you may not get as strong a package and if you submit late, the chances of getting financial aid are even slimmer.
  • Pay close attention to what each school requires you to submit or strongly recommends you send in regards to standardized testing, essays, letters of recommendation, etc.  While strongly recommends doesn’t mean require in the sense that you are disqualified from admission, it does means that you may be placing yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t do what it is that is being strongly recommended.
  • Ask teachers early for letters of recommendations.  The earlier you ask, the more time they can put into it and produce a well written letter on your behalf.  It’s important to keep in mind that you will not be the only student who is seeking that student out for a letter of recommendation. 
  • Follow up with all counselors and teachers to make sure that they have submitted your paperwork on time and be sure to also send a thank you to them for doing so.
  • Proofread your essays very carefully before you submit.  I would encourage you to print out your application if you’re filing it online because what you see is mostly likely what we’ll see when we click on print so you want to make sure that it’s formatted to what you want it to look like.
  • Demonstrate your interest in a college institution before you apply.  A lot of students visit the schools that they get into and from there will make a decision as to where to attend without knowing that many admissions offices take applicants’ demonstrated interest into consideration as a way to determine whether or not the student would enroll if admitted.  Just like you all want us to like you and admit you, we want to be liked by you all as well and be admitted in essence.
  • Create a professional email address and check that email frequently.  Silly or suggestive email addresses, while comical for us to read, are not professional and do not reflect well on you.  It’s also important that you don’t use your parents’ email addresses as your own and we can typically tell when this is happening.  We like to see students take the lead in the application process because it shows that you’re ready for the independent environment that is a part of the college experience.

 

Tran Kim-Senior
Assistant Director of Admissions
Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment