Tbred Tails

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

John Ashcroft

I went to the John Ashcroft lecture on campus last night. I am proud of Skidmore for bringing a controversial speaker to campus. I may not agree with much of anything he said, but I'm appreciative of the discourse and debate he brought to campus (even before he arrived). Events like this makes a small learning community so rewarding; students are able to hear, share, defend, and oppose ideas in an academic forum.

I think his lecture would have been more appropriately tittled "Defending the Patriot Act," as opposed to, "Leadership in difficult times."

I watched from a simulcast of the lecture in Case Center.

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

Faculty Basketball at Skidmore

Now that I work at Skidmore, I can play "noontime faculty/staff basketball". Games are held Monday, Wednesday and Friday at, you guessed it, noon. You can always judge how good a college is by how competitive the faculty basketball is (uh....not really- but wouldn't that be neat to see in the guidebooks?).

Here are some pictures from the last outing.