NYSACAC conference

The New York State Association for Admissions Counseling annual conference was held last week at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. The conference is held every year at a different New York State college and is a great opportunity for admissions counselors and guidance counselors/college advisers to see one another, network and make new friends. The "NizzyACAC" conference is what I look forward to at the end of every year; kinda like the prom:) The conference keynote speaker was Jonathan Kozol, a highly regarded educator/author. I was very interested to hear about the work he is doing with the Barrack Obama regarding education policy.

One of my favorite aspects of the conference is the chance to see another college campus. I inevitably fall in love with the host institution every conference and Manhattanville was no exception. The student workers we met were incredible ( I bonded with the Hawaiian students), the facilities were impressive and the professors I met were very impressive. Conference participants also have the "luxury" of staying in the dorms!


A picture from inside the "castle" at Manhattanville


Most of the Skidmore crew inside our dorm room


Dalton Conley addressed the conference on Tuesday night. I asked him to sign my copy of his book, Honky.

Spring Travel

Spring travel season has come and gone. Compared to the fall travel season, spring travel season is much shorter and not nearly as intense.

I spent a short time in New York City where I traveled with Jasmin Escobar, assistant director of admissions at Pitzer College. My good friend and Skidmore classmate, Angel Perez, is the Director of Admissions at Pitzer and I look forward to seeing him this weekend at our 10 year reunion.

I met so many great students in New York City and- ate so many great meals:) High Schools typically offer dinner before a night time fair. Some of the schools' PTA prepare a multi-ethnic feast fit for kings and the college reps dine before the college fair begins (like this one at one NYC high school)




I went to a handful of fairs and sat on one College Night Panel in the New York City Area. I traveled to Long Island for a big fair organized by guidance counselors in the Nassau County School district. I also attended some college fairs in the mid-Hudson region of the state. I enjoy being on the road but this year I felt very guilty because I missed out on some graduation events on campus. My Spring travel season ended appropriately at the high school I graduated from nearly 15 years ago. I sat on a panel along side colleagues from Bucknell, Hartwick, Tufts, Union, University of Connecticut, and Yale. We spoke about various topics surrounding the admissions process. I spoke briefly about Facebook and public domain. Dinner was (of course) provided with a neat little twist; students in a culinary arts class prepared dinner for us.
Kudos to the student chefs!

Adirondack Scholars

About five months ago, I wrote about a project to serve rural, first-generation students. Well, we pulled it off and it was a great success! A big thanks to the Skidmore Women’s tennis team, and the other Skidmore students who acted as mentors for the day (Hillary Ekwall, Megan Labbate, and Saundra). We had about eighty five students visit campus on Tuesday, participate in a scavenger hunt, and have lunch in the dining hall. The day was designed to help the Adirondack scholars become acquainted with a college campus and college life so they will think about going to college in the future!

Here is a rough copy of the scavenger hunt. We hope other campuses take the lead in promoting early college awareness to under served populations.

THE SKIDMORE SNAPSHOT with ADIRONDACK SCHOLARS- APRIL 29^TH, 2008

Find or take a picture of the following items on the below list!

Extra points given for being in the picture with the “subject.”

Someone younger than 10 years old on campus! 5pts
Skidmore student, class of 2011. 2pts
Skidmore Student in the library studying science! 4pts
Skidmore student wearing shorts and flip flops 5pts
Skidmore Professor 2pts
The President of Skidmore (outside of his office) 9pts
Skidmore student exercising in the gym 5pts
Skidmore student in an art studio 2pts
Skidmore student in the science lab 4pts
Skidmore student practicing an instrument 4pts
Skidmore students in the library studying together 4pts
Skidmore Student Government Officer (SGA officer) 5pts
A poster for an upcoming event 2pts
“ICE AGE” (the movie) 4pts
Inside a Skidmore dorm room 5pts
On the Skidmore basketball court 5pts
On stage of the Skidmore Theatre 5pts
In an art gallery 4pts
A fireplace 5pts
The Skidmore Seal 4pts
Skidmore sweatshirt 4pts
Skidmore Post Office 4pts
Wachenheim Field 3pts
Display of student research 6pts
A copy of the Skidmore News 2pts

Here are some pictures from the scavenger hunt!

Dani Fancher, a member of the women's tennis team, poses for a picture in order to get points in the scavenger hunt
One of the groups poses on the stage of JKB theater

Some of the Adirondack Scholars talk to a group of Skidmore students studying in the library

Some of the Adirondack Scholars listening to their Skidmore mentors speak

Adirondack Scholars find a first-year student at Skidmore in line waiting for food

Catching Up

It has been a crazy few weeks so I apologize for not blogging recently!

A couple weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College. We had a great discussion about the application review process!
A view from the back at HSAS' College night


A few days later, Stuyvesant High School brought eighty juniors to campus. I had a great time hanging out, answering questions, and eating in the dining hall!
Stuy students saying goodbye to Skidmore

The Filene Music Scholarship competition took place on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Congratulations to all of the finalists!

Two current students perform during a break in the competition!
Another current student performance

Thank you

Now that you have received your decision letter, please take the time to do the following:

Thank your teachers (especially the ones who wrote recommendation letters for you)!

Thank your guidance counselor/college counselor. He/she was much busier than you might think!

Last but not least, thank your parents!


Students at Mid-Pac pose with the counseling staff and admission counselors from Agnes Scott, Colby and Kenyon.

Letters are in the mail!

The mail truck arrives to collect 7,420 letters






It was an emotional day for our beloved Diana Burke. This year will be the last time she loads the mail truck with decision letters. Words can't thank her enough for the forty one years of service to the Skidmore community!

The wait is (almost) over!

On March 27^th, decision letters will leave the Skidmore admissions office. Months and months of hard work culminate into one simple decision letter. Some applicants will be ecstatic when the mail arrives, most will be disappointed. This post is dedicated to all 7,400+ applicants this year, regardless of the decision letter you receive. We thank you for your patience through the entire application process. We hope all of you will find the right institution for you, and for some of you, we hope that institution is Skidmore.

Accepted students can sign up for an Accepted Candidates Day here.

Check out some of the Skidmore groups on facebook: Skidmore Class of 2012 (started by a Skidmore class of 2012 student) and Discovery Weekend at Skidmore (a page I maintain). You can also check out the video I posted on the Discovery Weekend page.

While my next few blogs will be geared toward accepted students, please know I have not forgotten about the students just beginning their college search process. I will include a few posts to help students navigate the college search process.

Podcast Tour?

This week is Spring break for Skidmore students. We still offer group information sessions for prospective students but we do not have student led tours this week (March 10th-March 15th). On that note, I notice a larger population of students visiting Skidmore during the weekend, when the admissions office is not necessarily open. This got me thinking about what we could do to service the self-guided tours better.

We are currently playing with the idea of having a podcast or mp3 audio file (available on the Skidmore web page) of a self-guided tour; visitors could visit buildings they were interested in and click play on their Ipod/mp3 player to listen to a student talk about that specific building. For those less technically inclined, we could also have a phone number to call (using a cell phone) with the same recorded description of the building.

We recorded audio for two of the buildings on campus, JKB Theater and Filene Music Hall. We selected two superstar seniors (Natasha Amendolara and Ryan Klein) to leave their legacy behind in the form of their recorded voice.
Natasha getting ready to record (my camera was accidentally in video mode)

Ryan on his way to class

College Connect Conference

Marisa, Dean and I just got back from the CFES College Connect Conference. This year the conference focused on helping underserved students in rural areas and Lake Placid was an ideal meeting place.

Fact: Only one percent of philanthropist dollars (in education) went towards underserved rural populations!

There were twenty-one colleges represented and even more elementary, middle and high schools from rural areas present! Some participants drove more than seven hours to be at the conference.

The conference connects schools with underserved populations with/to Colleges. The partnership then shares ideas and comes up with a program to present at the end of the conference. CFES provides funding for the programs each team comes up with! Skidmore worked with a CFES program manager and outlined an incredible day to take place later this spring.

Student Summit 2008; A Skidmore Snapshot will bring one hundred (100) underserved students from the Adirondacks (from at least five different schools) to campus in late April! The 6th-8th graders will meet a number of Skidmore students and work with them to complete a "scavenger hunt." Each team of 10 Adirondack scholars (and Skidmore mentors) will be given a disposable camera. Each team will need to take a photo of specific items and people on all around campus in order to check off items off their scavenger hunt list! The Adirondack scholars will walk away with photo albums to remember their day on a college campus (not to mention lunch in the awesome dining hall!)

The Olympic Center

Marisa writes down our ideas to share with the group

Everyone shares their ideas at the end of the conference

Skidmore in NYC

Some of the admissions office is in New York City tonight for an admissions event on Saturday.

We were able to catch up with my former director John Young, now the director at Hobart William Smith. We also had the chance to have dinner with a former Head Ambassador (tour guide) from our office who now works in Admissions for Parsons! Go Sarah!

Marisa, Peter, Dean, Sarah, Shardae, Cathy and John!

Marisa and Sarah talking shop!

Skidmore Invite

My colleagues and I arranged for a group of students from New York City to spend a Saturday at Skidmore. Thanks to all of the Skidmore students who helped make the day an enjoyable one for all of our visitors!

Some students pose with the EAC bottle dino (see next picture)

Our panel addresses some great questions about being a student of color on campus

The Dynamics serenade one of the prospective students TDS perform for the students

Ujima Fashion show rehearsal
We enjoyed two meals in the dinning hall

Great Conference!

I had the opportunity to attend the cFES National Conference last weekend! It was an incredible conference for many reasons; networking (Aloha to my new friends from Hawaii), professional development, and brainstorming were all very easy to do at the conference. I don't think I've been to a conference so chock full of speakers who challenged, provoked and inspired educators to continue in our efforts to promote early college awareness in under served populations across the United States.

The Mario Pena Award was given out to two very hard-working people. Phil Smith, Dean of Admission Emeritus at Williams College, and our very own Mary Lou Bates, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Skidmore College!

I forgot to mention the conference was held just north of Saratoga Springs at the Sagamore Resort.

The view from our room
Another pic from our room

Trek to MUWCI

I was driven to the airport shortly after my breakfast to catch my flight to Pune. My airline had no record of my reservation even though I showed them my confirmation email and number. After purchasing (another) seat on the plane, I had to rush to catch my plane.

I arrived in Pune a short twenty minutes later and found the driver from MUWCI (Mahindra United World College India). Little did I know I was on the same flight as two other college representatives from College of the Atlantic also traveling to MUWCI. All three of us crammed into a "Jeep" and hung on for a nearly two hour ride (due to traffic) through the Indian countryside. MUWCI, like all UWC schools, is an incredible place because of it's location. It is located among the poorest villages in India and this impacts the "community interaction" projects available to students.













I arrived at MUWCI where Mike McGahan, the college advisor, showed me to my "residence house." The accommodations were much nicer than I expected and I was excited
to spend the next 20 hours at MUWCI.

The front of my residence at MUWCI
My room at MUWCI. Thanks again Mike!

The view from MUWCI

A pathway on MUWCI's campus



I had lunch in the dining hall and got to feel the energy the students on campus exude. I appreciated the opportunity to be able to spend a prolonged period of time on campus (at all my school visits) because I'm able to really experience the daily culture of the school.

One of my three meals at MUWCI


After a wholesome lunch, I presented to a much larger group of students than I expected. Many students that were not necessarily interested in Skidmore came to the my presentation to see a video (youtube link coming soon) they had heard about. Shortly before leaving for India, I was able to catch two MUWCI alums who are first-year students at Skidmore. We filmed a video greeting to their classmates. (Thanks again to Matt in the Media Lab for help with the video!!)

I met with a couple of students individually after my presentation and suddenly it was time for me to go on my "community interaction" trip. I met 14 MUWCI students at the Social Center. We squeezed into two jeeps and headed down the road to a local orphanage. We spent the late afternoon playing and socializing with local orphans. I was prohibited from taking photos but I'm sure you can imagine the scene. Some of the MUWCI students have been visiting this orphanage for two years but even the newer MUWCI students had a great impact on the orphans.MUWCI students posing in front of the orphanage

Two amazing days in Ohio

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Ohio and recruit for Skidmore's nationally recognized Opportunity Program. My travel partner was Kate, an academic advisor for the Opportunity Program.

Our connection flight was running late so we were rerouted to Dayton, Ohio via Charlotte, North Carolina. It didn’t make sense to us, but we got to our final destination safely but later than expected. Our travel karma seemed to balance out and our rental car turned out to be a convertible. The weather forecast was perfect convertible weathertoo!

A few hours after checking into our hotel, we were up and on our way to our visit to Meadowdale High School.

Kate in front of Meadowdale HS.

We were scheduled to spend the full day there and while it was a long day, it was one of the most amazing days I have had as a college admissions officer. Cheryl Lincoln, the only counselor at the school, was responsible for over 1100 students (and growing). She still managed to shuffle us off to the appropriate classrooms in addition to all of her other responsibilities. Drastic budget cuts have made the school day shorter but the students there are still eager to absorb everything their dedicated teachers give them. We met with all grade levels and encountered so many great students defying the odds. These are students who are ready to go to college and we hope to be able to help their transition to Skidmore (and other great institutions). My only regret is I didn’t have a chance to take pictures of any of the students on campus.

After a full day, Kate and I took Cheryl and an English teacher out to lunch. It was the least we could do to thank them for giving us an incredible opportunity to talk with so many of their students.

After the late lunch/early dinner, Kate and I drove about 3 hours to Cleveland. We were so emotionally (and physically) drained, we went straight to our rooms and went to bed.

The next morning we visited Cleveland School of the Arts. It is a magnet school and all of their students are incredibly talented. We had a chance to meet with all grade levels and take a tour of the school.

The choir showing us a little of their incredible talent.

I had the opprtunity to speak to the entire freshman class.

We witnessed the school choir practicing, a dance class in progress, and a tour of the photography and art studios. We finished the day with a late lunch with Carol Soljanick and another counselor from the school at an incredible restaurant, Nighttown.

We were even luky enough to drive through Cleveland on the way back to the airport!

The "tribe" had just come back to beat the Tigers.