{"id":1034,"date":"2011-12-16T14:34:46","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T18:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admissions.me.holycross.edu\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2011-12-16T14:34:46","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T18:34:46","slug":"the-invisible-gorilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/2011\/12\/16\/the-invisible-gorilla\/","title":{"rendered":"The Invisible Gorilla"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Many people have seen the well-known \u201cInvisible Gorilla\u201d<\/a> experiment on YouTube.\u00a0 Viewers are instructed to watch a short video clip with two groups of people \u2013 some wearing black shirts and others wearing white shirts.\u00a0 Both groups of people move around in a seemingly random, jumbled fashion and the challenge for the viewer is to count how many times the participants wearing white pass the basketball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The answer is fifteen.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The point is that in the middle of the clip, a person wearing a gorilla suit enters the frame and most viewers are paying such close attention to counting the passes that they simply don\u2019t even see the gorilla.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful study in \u201clooking without seeing\u201d or how our focused attention can cause us to miss obvious realities that are staring us in the face (and pounding their chest).<\/p>\n

While traveling this fall to meet with students, I\u2019ve heard the following statement several times:<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that college \u2013 the tour guide was awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

When I hear that, I think to myself \u2013 they missed the gorilla.<\/p>\n

Taking an official campus tour is a valuable part of the campus visit.\u00a0 But, when walking the campus, you should not only pay attention to the tour guide, but also to all the information you can gleam from your observations of the campus, the environment, the students, faculty and staff that you may notice during your tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During your college search, tour guides (and even admissions counselors like me) can help relay important information about a college but we are merely basketball-passing conduits.\u00a0 It\u2019s only when you slow down on your visit and take the time to notice all that\u2019s around you that you\u2019ll see the gorilla and gain true insight into how that college might fit for you.<\/p>\n

Andrew N. Carter
\nAssociate Director of Admissions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people have seen the well-known \u201cInvisible Gorilla\u201d experiment on YouTube.\u00a0 Viewers are instructed to watch a short video clip with two groups of people \u2013 some wearing black shirts and others wearing white shirts.\u00a0 Both groups of people move around in a seemingly random, jumbled fashion and the challenge for the viewer is to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Invisible Gorilla”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[71,204,208,212],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-staff","category-andrew-carter","tag-college-search","tag-tours","tag-visit","tag-why-holy-cross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/admissions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}