Happy Fall! Classes have resumed, Labor Day Weekend has come and gone, and tomorrow I head out on my first recruitment trip for the Class of 2020. While some of my colleagues have already begun their travels, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little more about what we in Holy Cross Admissions do while we’re out on the road.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my colleagues and I will be travelling all over the country to share information with prospective students and their families about what makes Holy Cross special. We try to visit at least four high schools a day as well as attend college fairs and host alumni interview programs in order to meet future applicants. As such, travel season is a great time for us to explain our approach to admissions while seeing prospective students in their home areas.
To get the most out of the recruitment season, here are some tips:
– if possible, make labels with your name, high school, class year, email address, home address, and phone number. It will save you a lot of time when you’re meeting admissions reps at college fairs or during high school visits!
– try not to wear any college paraphernalia if you know that you’re going to meet an admission counselor. While a college sweatshirt may be comfortable, it can also be a little distracting if I’m trying to talk to a student about Holy Cross and they’re sporting gear from [INSERT OTHER COLLEGE NAME HERE]. On that note, please be mindful of your clothing choices in general the day of a visit from a rep or a college fair–these are wonderful opportunities to make a strong first impression!
– come talk to us! My colleagues and I travel thousands of miles to visit schools. It takes us a lot of time, effort, and coordination to plan our travel, but we go through it all because we really want to interact with our applicants. At Holy Cross we take a very holistic approach to admissions, so it means a lot to us to be able to speak with prospective students. We call this demonstrated interest, and it plays an important role in our decision-making process.
– lastly but still importantly…please offer us recommendations for dinner or lunch! Travel is such an incredible part of our work for many reasons, but certainly one is that we get the chance to experience other parts of the country and the world. In my opinion, sampling local food and drink is such a lovely little perk!
I hope this helps you as you embark on the next step in the college application process. Enjoy the season!
(photography by Tom Rettig)
It’s that time of year again! The warm temperatures are dropping, students are heading back to school, and admissions counselors are packing up their bags and getting ready to hit the road to meet prospective students all over the country. I often think about how similar the fall season is for high school students and admissions staff. As you all are putting together binders for your classes, meeting new teachers, and mapping out the fastest route from gym to History, we’re doing very similar tasks. I just recently put together my travel binder for the season, I’ll be meeting new guidance counselors that I’ll be working with this year, and I too am trying to plan the quickest way to get from one school to another so that I can meet as many of you as possible in my travels this fall.
So it’s July and while you’re (we hope) sitting by the pool enjoying your summer break, we’re here in the office thinking about your college applications. Yes, we’re already planning for next year. Over the past few weeks we have begun planning our fall travel schedules. We put a lot of thought into what schools we will be visiting. We consider where we have visited in past years, where we receive applications from, and also where we would like to build awareness about Holy Cross. After much deliberating, scheduling and rescheduling, each counselor will have approximately a seven week itinerary of high schools, community based agencies and college fairs to attend spanning from September to November. We can’t always visit every school or attend every event we would like but we do our best to fit everything in. In August, our schedules will be posted on the web page, so be sure to check that out to see when we’ll be in your area. We’ll see you on the road this fall!
