File Review Roundtable

Whose idea was this?

Hey welcome we're so glad you were joining us this afternoon. If you want to put in the chat your name where you're from, that would be awesome.

We will get started.

As promptly as possible.

I need to set my teeth first.

Not that we were keeping a contest in our office, but we're feeling like we might have the most participants in a session in awhile, so we're glad you all logged in to spend some time with us this afternoon.

I am on campus as is Jeff and we can hear the chimes ringing.

Indicating it is three o'clock here on the campus at Swanee.

Well, you guys are from all over the place.

We had over 200 registers, so we're going to give it a minute to get everybody to log in because we would hate for you to miss any of this great information. We're going to share with you this afternoon.

I'm not sure if any of you have ever had the chance to be on campus, but if you do, you might recognize this picture here.

Looking at the sunset.

You are signing in Fast and Furious.

I think we'll go ahead and get started because we have a lot of information to share with you. I'm going to kick it ouf maybe 'cause it's a look at that. Lisa Burns is written under Jeff's name too, so it'll be a mystery. You'll have to look at. Look at your name there so my name is Lisa Burns and I am the associate Dean of admission here at Swanee. I have been here since 2008 and we decided to do this session because my guess is those of you that.

Have signed up or anxious to know what's going on in that admission office who makes that review of an application? How do they do it? Who looks at it? Where does it go, and when am I going to hear something from Swanee? So we're going to cover all of that plus more today during our time. You all were great and submit it. A lot of questions, so we're going to try and address many of them if we don't get to the question, you can follow up with us. Just send us a quick email afterward and we will follow up with that. So I'm going to let my two other panelists.

Introduce themselves and then we will get started with our slides.

Hey everybody, my name is Jeff Heitzenrater. I've worked here at Swanee for nearly 30 years. For a long time and I'm happy to be here today to talk to you about file review.

Hi everyone, I'm latisha Spencer. I have been here at 20 for about a year and a half. So very excited that you are joining us today.

So let's look at our agenda for our time together. Letitia's going to walk us through our timeline notifications and then a little overview of the review process. Kind of how it works here at Swanee, and I think it's important to know that this is the way we do things here. I can't guarantee it's the way it happens at other places. We've worked at other schools and they may do it differently, but this is the way it's happening here at Swanee. And then we each selected 3 common questions that we receive.

From perspective students, and sometimes their parents about the process. So we're going to share those and our answers, and then we're each going to share three of our ah ha moments as we were reading applications, what really jumped out off the computer screen as we were reading it, we're going to tell you one of our favorite essay topics, and so you know, I've been doing this for 39 years, so I had to go really far back into my memory to find one of my favourites. And then we'll have time for questions and answers, and you'll put those in the chat and one of our staff members, Shiro Burnett is.

Behind the scenes and he'll be looking at the essay or the questions and making sure that we address as many of them as we can in our time together. So I'm going to turn it over to Letitia.

Hi everyone, So what you all are probably dying to know is when will I hear back about my application that I've submitted? So here you'll see a chart of all of our application options and rounds that we have here at celani and then you will see a deadline based on when you need to submit your application. But then also when you will hear back so early decision one those decisions have already went out early action is what is coming up next. So this says late January but you might find out a little sooner than that.

Those decisions will be building out fairly, fairly shortly and then early decision to the deadline for that was January 15. You'll also hear about that by the end of the month. Regular decision is by February 1st, and then you will hear back in early March. So then you will also see your deposit deadlines based on when you've applied.

And then transfer. I'm not sure that we have any transfers on the call, but we'll see that there. So here is a breakdown of kind of how we read applications, so bear with me. There's a lot of blocks on the screen. There's a lot of places where application can land, so at the top you will see kind of a timeline, so your application starts in a pre review when it is incomplete, and so when you are submitting your application and you get access to your applicant status page. That's where you can see what items were still looking for.

When you see all of those items checked off on your applicant status page, that's how you know, OK, you are leaving the pre review. You are going into a first read. So first read is really just broken down by what application round you've chosen to apply. So all of our 80 students EARD international students, an transfer students kind of go in a different place and then your territory manager does the first read. So for example, I work with students in the mid Atlantic Area, so Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia.

New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania. So if you're from any of those areas, if you go to high school in any of those areas, I would be doing your first read on your application. So then from there we kind of take a first look and then you will go into an additional review. Been so these are kind of called bins that we have here, and so one really important thing to note is that if you're applying for aid, you will see on your checklist the fasfa and the CSS profile.

It's important that you get these in by the deadline or as close to it as you can because we do need all of this information to be able to review your application, get you in your decision in a timely manner, and then you also get your full financial aid package in a timely manner. So if you're a DAP is incomplete, you go to the aid app, incomplete bin, and so then this can kind of hold up your application and it may prevent you from moving along as quickly as you would if you write app is complete. There's a 8 app complete bin, we have some.

Microphone there we go. Can you hear me? Thank you. I guess that's what that means right? We were right next door to each other in the office. And so you know, if anything, we hope this session helps you understand that we're real. Live people doing our jobs, reading applications, actually studying every single thing that comes in from you. All the students who are applying and doing our best to make the best decisions. I would encourage early action applicants. Those of you that applied December 1 to keep an eye on our social media, we will be doing a countdown to.

The release date at that place so that you'll be able to see when we are ready to make our release. We just always want to make sure we have it all right before we hit the button that releases decisions. We also know that an email will come to you that will say check your applicant status page. So if for some chance you've never checked that applicant status page now would be the time to make sure you've done that so that you can receive your early action decision. If you're in our regular decision pool.

Will notify you at a later date, but it's important to make sure that all of the materials are coming in so that we can make a full review. We haven't spent a lot of time reviewing regular decision applications yet 'cause we've been paying attention to our early early action applicants, so I first want to start. We're going to do our three common questions, and here are my 3. One of them is.

Do you have a preferred essay topic?

You know there's the common app or common app exclusive at Swanee, and sometimes students will call and say is there the best essay topic for me to answer and my responses? You answer the one that's going to give us a glimpse into what's going on in your head and in your heart, and that's why we asked for college essay on the application anyway, is to learn a little bit more about you. So write to one that you can write to as your authentic self.

Another question, how many recommendation letters can I send? Will Swaney requires a School Report? Your college counselor and we ask for one academic teacher? You can send others. We will certainly put them in your record, but we're not going to post them on your applicant status page. So if you've had a second or third or fourth teacher supervisor, your volunteer coordinator, send a recommendation letter, it may very well be here, but as you pull up your applicant status page.

Going to see that listed 'cause it's not required for you to move through those bins that Latisha talked about as being complete. So just know that we will gladly accept those if you have them emailed to us or if they come in through the common app. But to complete your file we need just the School Report counselor recommendation and then one teacher recommendation and then my final question is, do you accept apib dual enrollment credit? And the answer is yes, we will accept those will accept the total of 32 credit hours.

A combination of those perhaps, and that is all reviewed at the time you're making your enrollment plans here at Swanee, and it's always under the approval of the Department chair of whether they will accept that credit in dual enrollment and the AP score is a four or A5. And then the IB is the same score in a higher level examination.

And I'm going to turn it over to Jeff for his three questions.

Great, thanks Yep. So the three questions that I thought of that maybe come up the most common to me. Do I have to submit all applicants location materials by the deadline? And technically the answer is no. You can submit your common application by the deadline and the other materials can trickling later. However, it is really important to try to complete your application as close to the deadline as possible. Letisha mentioned earlier that.

Anything that's delayed beyond the deadline potentially delays the reviewer of your application or could even move you from one submission deadline to another submission deadline. If we don't get everything before we don't receive all the materials before we release decision. So definitely get everything in as close to that deadline if not before or on the deadline as possible.

Second question, are there other steps required to be considered for merit scholarship at Swaney? Every single applicant who completes a common application and submits all materials is automatically considered for merit scholarships, so there are no additional steps necessary to be considered for that, so that's good.

3rd question, if I do not submit a test score, how does that change my chances for admission? So at Swanee we've been test optional for over 10 years, which means we've been reviewing applications without test scores for that period of time and test optional means you get to decide if you're satisfied with your scores. If you feel like they're a good reflection of who you are as a student, and so we review applications with or without scores.

And potential, essentially that does not have an effect on your decision. Now, if you have a perfect score in the S80 in the AC T and you do not submit those scores, then that is not a good choice on your part. You should probably turn those scores in, but technically speaking, no, it doesn't change the decision. We still review your application without those scores and I'll turn it over to Latisha for her questions.

Yeah, and one of my questions kind of goes right along with what you just mentioned Jeff about test scores. A lot of students will ask me does do we have any preference between the S80 or the AC T or do we take subject tests sorry and so really. The answer to that is no and no. So we don't look at subject tests. You do not need to submit those and then we also don't have a preference of whether or not you submit an AC T test or an essay T test. So that really is up to you. So our students who do want to submit a test.

Or it's really just up to you in terms of which one you are taking. I think it is a question to ask yourself in regards to other schools you may be applying to, but we do not have a preference here at Suwannee and we also do not look at subject test so you don't have to send those along either and so also I get a question usually about GPA. So do we take unweighted weighted? Did we recalculate GPA and so really the way that we read here at Suwannee is that we take the GPS on your transcript. We do use a weighted GPA.

And if your school does not offer that for some reason, we are usually just taking the GPA that is on the transcript. But if your school is offering a weighted GPA, that is what we use in the process. We do not use typically recalculate GPA's unless we need to get it back to a 4.0 scale. If your school is one that has it on a 12 point scale for example, or something like that. But we take that weighted GPA that is on your transcript and then also a question that I get is does the major that I select.

Have any bearing on my admission decision and I'd say the short answer that is no so really students here at Suwannee are encouraged to explore their major explore what it is that you're wanting to study. So applying undecided does not disadvantage you in any way. The major that you do select does not disadvantage you or if an issue in the application process we really are just looking for students who are going to be a good match here at Suwannee. And we admit students to the University not necessarily to a specific program or major.

So it does not necessarily affect your decision that you'll receive based on your application based on the major that you choose.

We're not doing goat yoga live here on campus today, but it is something certainly that that happens when the weather is delightful and so we're going to tell you three of our ah ha moments as we have read files either this year or last year or whenever we read applications. And I will say one of my ah ha moments is I'm reading a students file and think about your application here to Swanee is a good book for us.

You know we're turning through the pages, learning things about you, hearing what people say about you, and I love to find that connectedness to perhaps excelling in a particular academic course. Maybe you're doing very well in AP English and you're taking a creative writing class. And then I move to your section on activities, and I see that you already started writing a book or you're participating in a literary group on your high school campus. So I'm seeing the connectedness there, and that's always a great great moment for me.

I also like when I'm reading a students application and perhaps they do go get their high school and I say, Oh my gosh, they'll be able to do that here at Swanee. Or maybe they volunteered at their school far more. There are Volunteer Fire Department person or they worked at the Habitat for Humanity House in their town. Or they've tutored and I'm seeing things that they're doing in high school and I automatically. I'm trying to imagine you doing those things here on our campus. I know students who are doing those things here at Swanee.

And I immediately put you in their place and think, Oh my gosh, I could see them involved in those activities and so that is always a great moment through the application. And because you've shared all that through your application, you've taken the time to list your activities. Go into some detail about those that's helping me. Have those, ah, ha moments, and then the final one is when I finish reading that application. I've studied your transcript. I've looked at all the material that you've submitted and there is no question in my mind.

But I know why you want to be. It's normal that I know you'll be a good fit for this place and so that takes some work on the students park. It takes some work on my part to read your application, but there are times I get to the end of an application and I wonder would they have been better suited to submit that application somewhere else? I'm not really seeing much of a fit here, but most of the time I'm seeing great reasons of why that student would be an excellent member of our campus community.

Very good, thanks Lisa. So here are mine 1. One of them is when I'm reading an application and I notice a student is a varsity athlete at their high school and they're also competing in club sports. Sometimes the same sport, but sometimes a different sport and sometimes they're in multiple sports. But I I'm a parent of a current college student in a recent college graduate and both boys.

And they were both very heavily involved in athletics at their high school, and they played on club teams, and so if there are other parents who are on this session, you understand if your son or daughter is playing high school sports, but maybe even more specifically, club sports. That's very, very time consuming. Depending on where you are, and so there are a lot of times when those applicants will have the varsity sport in a club sport. And maybe only one or two other things noted on the application.

As in the activities section, and you know if you have four things in that noted and one each four of them only have one year listed, you might think well, has this student really involved outside of the class, but the ah ha moment for me is when I see that in our club soccer team, Anna School soccer team and a lot of times there's private coaching going on. Outside of that, I know that student is spending a lot of time, and they've made a real commitment to that, and typically there may not be other things. On top of that. So that really stands out to me.

I similar to Lisa when I read an application as an as I'm going through, I immediately start to connect this student to someone I know who's here now or someone who you know. I've been here along time for 30 years, and many of those years I coached cross country and track. So sometimes I'm reading applications and I think, Oh yeah, this this student is just like Billy Smith from Alabama who graduated in 2001.

And that sort of connection really helps me, 'cause I think yeah, this this kids gonna fit in here. They're going to love it. They're going to succeed and that's a real moment for fever or really kind of stands out and the last one is when I see students reading their application and they show a lot of interest in the outing program. Our Environmental Sciences program. You know, most of you know if you've done any research on Swanee at all. We have a 13,000 acre campus and the vast majority of that is just.

Words that are crisscrossed in trails and and lots of research is done out there and the Swanee Swanee Swanee's integrated program in the environment is one of our Premier programs, and so when I see those students who are very environmentally conscious, they're interested in environmental studies. They really love to do outing programs. That's an immediate lightbulb for me. For a student who would really enjoy their experience here, matatia.

Alright, so one thing that really sticks out for me is when I see students that are really service oriented or students who just really love to give back to their community. I feel like like Lisa said, I feel like I can see that students doing well at Swanee. I mean, I think our students are privileged pretty, you know, civically engaged an I think when I see students who have a true passion for giving back for just helping their community, that always just stands out to me is something that I take note of in the application process.

And it's something that I'm always I always kind of love to see in that, and I think another thing that stands out for me is that I come across a lot of applications of students who work either part time or part of the year, or have a lot of family responsibility. Or just do a lot of things that may not traditionally fall within an extracurricular activity, but probably something that takes a lot of their time, alot of energy and then to still be able to balance other commitments like other clubs and organizations at high school or sports or.

Still maintain great grades in a rigorous curriculum. It's definitely something that I take note of and something that you know. I guess we don't take very lightly for a student to be able to juggle all of those things. And all of those commitments is pretty impressive and it shows amazing time management skills which are definitely going to need in college, and so those are just some of the things that stand out to me in applications sometimes and then also, um, I love when I get an application of a student that I have met in some way shape or form throughout the process. So whether you have attended.

A high school visit when we visit your high school, either in person or virtually, or whether you've submitted or signed up for a one on one appointment with me online or we just chatted through email. It's so nice to come across a name and I know like, oh, I remember that student. I remember the great chat we had about our favorite TV shows on Netflix. Or, you know, just whatever being able to get to know students in that capacity and then seeing an application come through and knowing the name.

And then kind of having that context to put with an application as I read it is is really great. So just a plug. If you have not. If you do not, you know have not interacted with your mission counselor much. I think that can go along way, so sign up for VCU. Engage in introduce yourself through email because that is definitely something that stands out to me when I come across to a student that I've met throughout the process.

So now we're going to tell you one favorite essay, and there's always a pause when you do this because.

Um, you might have written a great essay, but I'm not going to name it today and there is more than just one grade essay, and it's just important we read those essays. Like I said earlier, to kind of just put the pieces of the puzzle together. Your essay is not intended to be a resume of your life. It's not intended to be a travelogue that we get to the end and wonder well who was on that journey. It's not intended to be a story about your best friend.

And we never even know who you are in there. And there are just some that we read and were like they were OK and there are others that you know, start a fire. And so that's my story. I'm going to tell you, and this is long ago I worked in admissions at Xavier University in Cincinnati, which is where I went to college and so long ago that we actually read applications on paper, so our printer would print billions of pieces of paper and we would get file folders and one late afternoon it was a winter day and so I have lit a candle on my desk.

Which is now a no no. You're not supposed to light candles in office buildings, but I was reading this essay this student had written an I learned all about their climbing of Mount Rainier out in Seattle, WA. Ann as I was turning the pages of the essay totally Enthralled with this story. It also helped that I had been to Mount Rainier just the fall before I recruit out there an I had been out there and been able to take a trip. I mean it is a glorious sight. So I was all caught up in this essay and as I'm turning the pages.

You know now that their landing on top of this candle and I look over an I have a fire going on my desk so I would say if you can write that essay that's can somehow magically ignite. That's what we're looking for because it means you put some time into it. It means you've talked about something that's really important to you and really makes you go an intern. It's exciting to us as well. The best part was that the pieces of the application that had the students signature and other important parts of it did not go up in flame 'cause I.

Wasn't sure I was going to call that family and say, could you you know hand write that application again because I just burned your child application. So that's my essay in Mount Rainier Story who can top that one? I bet you both, yeah.

They said that's a really good one. An all of you out there. You need to know that we don't handle paper anymore. Your applications all on our computer screen, so thankfully the candles we light will not burn them. We could break the system I suppose, but that was a really good one. So the one I remember is actually from last year an are meant to look back to see if the student ended up enrolling it's Wanyan.

And I didn't. I would say just as an intro for this one at.

Each of us reads have a lot of applications, and so the essays sometimes can be predictable and I would say that explain that by saying you know if you start the application and you start to see a theme. And let's say that student is involved in a particular sport and you start to think to yourself.

You know, I wonder what this essay is going to be like, and when the essay starts and it's about that sport, you think I could have guessed this about halfway through the application, it could have said up at this student is going to write an essay about the sport.

And their passion and love for it. And so. And there tend to be a lot of those. Actually, in my experience. And so I'm start the essay.

And that's exactly where it's headed, and I'm thinking, well, OK, I could have predicted this and this young man was talking about the lead up to competition. You know the preparation of your mind for competition and the preparation physically and trying to get in the right frame of mind and assembling all the things that you need. And he never talked about specifics. He just, you know, just built and built and built.

In the last sentence in the think it was, the 2nd paragraph said and then you hear those that one dreaded word colon. And then it said my Zhang. So at the time I kind of didn't know what Mahjong was, but I thought wait, what's what sport is this? So I did a Google search for mahjong. It turns out the card game and the rest of the essay was about this young man playing mahjong with his grandmother and all his grandmother's friends. And how many how he would go over there often and.

It was just perfect. It is this kid I thought was playing with me. He was like I'm gonna make you think I'm gonna write this essay about one thing but Wham I'm going to go in a different direction so I really really enjoyed that and thought it was a twist and what I thought was going to be really predictable.

My teacher wanted you, what's yours?

So I have. I have an interesting one, so it was from my very first year in college admissions at a previous institution, and if you all are familiar with the show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, you'll need to be familiar with that to get the essay. So the essence self was about just about the student and how they would be a great fit at the pool that I was working for. But the caveat was that at the top he wrote, please read this essay to the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

And it matched perfectly. It rhymed an. It was just super creative. And I think that year we all printed it out. That was, mind you. That was also the first year we were doing electronic applications at that school. So that year we printed it out to have it on paper. And we like kept it in our offices. I mean, everyone just loved that essay because it was super unique. You saw so much of the students personality, it was still very professional innocence. An it really kind of just got.

Who that student was across and it was just really cool. It was really, really cool and so you got to read an essay while singing and humming it to the theme song on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. So that is mine. It was really creative and I just love to see students kind of show their personality in a way through the essay.

Now I'm going to have to listen to that song. Maybe I'll put that on my.

You know, I think what what we want to be sure you're hearing from us is it's not just one thing. It's not just that one great essay or that. Ah ha, moment that Lisa Burns has when she's reading the application, there is so much that goes into the file review and we take it very seriously here. In that, each file is at least touch two to three times by members of the staff. We spend time reviewing, reading. We haven't even talked about the whole academic piece because most of the time.

Students who apply to Swanee academically are within range for us, but we're really trying to figure out who is best to invite to come and live with us for four years to join us in our community. So it's all the other parts of that application that really help us with that. You might now be thinking I submit my application and everything is complete. It was early action I should be hearing soon, but I never connected with my admission counselor. Well, you can look their email up and perhaps end of a note and say I watch this.

Little such session this afternoon and I just wanted to check in with you, or perhaps you wonder about your regular decision applicants, and you've not logged into your applicant status page yet to see if all of your materials are in so realizing that you're in charge of a lot of this information that is sent to us for us to review, but know that it's it takes a lot of time. We enjoy every bit of it, but at the same time, you know it gives us a chance to really figure out who is going to be in that freshman class.

So if you think about the different rounds that we have, it's typically a fourth of our class is an early decision student. They've decided that that's their plan. They know this is where they want to be, and they've applied early decision. Half of our students are typically early action, which is the deadline we've just passed and will be notifying those students very soon of those decisions, and then the remainder. Usually the last quarter are in the regular decision pool, so know that everybody gets the same review. Everyone gets the same careful.

Consideration everyones reviewed for academic scholarships, but that's sort of the breakdown of how we see our class typically typically come together. We are open for questions. I know Shiro is at the ready with questions that have come in and he's going to send those to us and see where we can continue to answer any questions you might have.

Welcome, shiro.

Before he logs on, I took a quick peek at a couple of the questions and one of them is Latisha was showing the slide here of where the decisions go. We clearly know when and admit is we clearly know what to deny is a defer here at Swanee and we will be deferring some students when we release our early action. And we released the decisions all at the same time. Whether you're admitted, deferred or denied, we do not wait. List out of the early action pool, but if your deferred for admission.

You're instructed to. If you'd like. If you're still interested in Swanee, and I strongly encourage it because we feel like there's some hope. If we deferred, you schedule, a phone call will be a list of times available. You'll schedule a phone call with Nancy York in our office who is one of our counselors and she'll be able to talk with you and very clearly very transparently tell you why you were deferred. What you could do to improve your application and move forward in the regular decision plan in the regular decision cycle. That's when will offer weightless to a student.

A wait list means your admissible. We're ready, but we just don't know if we've got the space right now, so we need to hold off until we see what the admitted students do there to give us an answer by May 1 and so. It's usually as we get close to that date, will begin to talk to students off the wait list, but anyone who applied early action will not be offered wait list at this point. They might be deferred, but admit different, and I are going to be the three decisions that will release with early action.

Welcome, shiro.

Hello, so really good segue, so following up on defers specifically can you talk about like what happens after that process? If a student receives a defer? What are some good next steps?

Sure, so the best next step is to schedule appointment. It would be sitting next to half an hour with Nancy York. Nancy will be very clear about how that decision was made. She will be able to review the notes that were made when that application was reviewed. If it's academic, she might ask for some updated grades. If it's because we had no idea of your interest in US.

She'll be able to ask you about that and she will give you steps moving forward. You will then be an active applicant in the regular decision pool, so we'll just keep you involved and active an re look at your file again with new information in the regular decision pool.

And then also with that keen talk about updated senior grades, whether that's first semester of the fall quarter or current grades right now.

Yeah, I can talk about that. So given where we are right now at this point most people prob. Most students have probably finished their first semester. Or maybe if you're trimester you have trimester great first trimester grades and so if there are some students that we've sent out a request for midyear grades and so you should try to have those submitted to us to be part of your application. And then we're just trying to make sure that.

That things are on the right headed in the right direction or kind of confirm a trend that maybe we saw your junior year and then if you just submitted are finished a semester then then you can submit your first semester grades as well and those become part of your application review and so at this point it's really for regular decision. An early decision to applicants will be the two where we're still considering those those first first semester or midyear grades.

Awesome and there was a question about gap years and if that has an effect on admission.

So I will answer that the gap your question has a few sides to it, so there could be some students who were going to offer admission to this year and sometime in the spring they're going to say I'd like to take a gap year. I decided I'm not ready. I want to pause. I want to delay my enrollment in college for a year. Would Swaney allow for a gap year? And the answer would be yes, we'd ask for information about what your plans are. We would ask you not to sign up for a program where there's academic work because we want it truly to be experiential.

You would write that request to us. We would, granted, and then we'd ask for $1000 deposit to hold your spot for the next school year. So that's the gap year process. This past year we had 13 kind of our average has been between 8:00 and 11:00. We had a few more this year just because of the pandemic, but that's about the number we've seen each year. Now there could be some of you who are currently on a gap year. Ann, you are going to apply to college. You graduated a year ago. You're now in a gap year.

And now you're applying, you know, tell us what you've been doing, why you did that gap year, what you experience, what were the benefits to you? What were some of your challenges? You might be a senior now who has applied once to withdraw? Have your gap year, and then you could apply the next year. So we're pretty flexible with what your interest are. I think that the most important for us is we want you to be here at Swanee. If offered admission and have it be the right time in the right place for you.

And so will help guide you in some of those decisions. Our website has some great gap year opportunities on it. If you're curious about what some of them might be on our website, just go to the gap year page and you'll see I just added a new one last week. I was talking with college counselor actually and his daughter is currently on a gap year and she's sailing from somewhere way far away across the Atlantic and is going to arrive in Antigua in a couple of months so.

Kind of sounds cool alot of hard work, but there are lots of great programs for you to consider.

Alright and then.

See.

There was another one about.

Majors and are with you know you touched on this a little bit, but are they bound to the major that they indicated on the application?

Absolutely not. We know that your your mind will change. You have the flexibility to change your major. You have the option to come in undecided. So you really have a lot of flexibility there. You are absolutely in no way bound to a major once you arrive at Suwannee you will have an advisor that will be able to help you through the process, selecting courses and just kind of help you throughout your time at Suwannee you could possibly.

Have more than one when you do declare major, but you are in no way bound to the major that you put on your common app and you can change that.

Alright, and then this one I'm just going to read for beta. Is it good or bad that someone is the first student from a certain highschool applying to a United States College's funny? How do we see that?

I it's not good or bad. It's interesting you know part of the work that we do, what we see when you send in your application is your counselor census information about your school. So if you're not familiar with the school, we're going to read that we're going to understand what the curriculum is. We're going to understand the teaching model. Oftentimes, a school profile comes along with that, which helps us figure out you know, are there AP courses? Is there an International Baccalaureate curriculum? Where do the students go to college?

What's the level of faculty? What courses are offered so we read a lot of that information. So if we're not familiar with the school, it gives us a chance to learn about another really interesting high school. We don't make our decisions and say Oh well, we took five from that school last year. So let's take 5 again this year. We take the best students who we know in our applicant pool are going to be successful and contribute to our campus community. So never feel that that's a disadvantage because you might be coming from a school we don't know. You might have just started a new great relationship.

Horse

And then this is another one I want to read for beta. Well, being a Jack of all traits pose a disadvantage in the application process.

So I'm assuming what they're in materially, Lisa? How do you interpret this here? You assuming that they're saying they do lots and lots of things, and they have two full pages of extracurricular activities listed with not necessarily a time as committed to one over any other? Is that how you interpret that?

That's kind of what I'm imagining, yeah?

Yeah, no, I don't think that's a bad thing, and maybe it would teach in. Lisa can answer as well, but we're looking for students who are passionate about things and are engaged in. You know, sometimes you're a good athlete at a small school an you play 5 sports because you know there might be 15 athletes in your school and they need you to compete in all those and so you have all those sports listed. You also are leader in that school. You're also.

Involved in community service and so it might appear as if you're a Jack of all trades and not necessarily committed to any one thing but there probably. But there's nothing wrong with that, and you know, we want students who are committing their time in things they are passionate about outside of the academic piece and eating and sleeping because those are the students that we want on this campus. But there are lots of students here who do many, many things so you don't ever come across the Swanee student who just says.

Yeah, I'm a sophomore from Atlanta and I'm an English major and that's all they say. Typically they'll rattle off three to four to five to six things we're doing on this campus, so that definitely doesn't hurt your chances.

Alright, another one would be if someone's a homeschool applicants. How does that change their process?

I will answer that so home school applicant. The only additional item is that we ask for an interview with our home school coordinator. And that's faith Bond in our office. So once the application comes in, the student will be notified to sign up for a time and that really just gives us because the home school process, you know, the transcripts look different. The courses are different. You know some students are taking some classes at a local college. I mean, there's just more to learn. They can just be captured on the basic common application form.

So that home school interview gives Faith an the student a chance to just find out what the curriculum is. You know what their courses are like, how long they've been home schooled, and certainly gets to know the student as well as the student gets know a little bit more about about Swanee. I don't have off the top of my head a number of homeschool applicants that we have each year. Faith could probably get that for you. If you want to email her as the home school coordinator, but we certainly see a good number of them from all over the country in the world.

Students who are homeschooled and so that's the only difference is asking for the home school interview.

Let's see so some of these are little more like looking ahead into enrollment. Is it possible to double major as my student?

Yeah.

Yes, working.

I think we're hopeful.

I think 14% of our students are double majors.

Gotcha then getting one that just came in. If the school does not offer AP or IB courses, will that negatively impact an application?

No, that's a good question, but we look at you in the context of your high school. So like Lisa mentioned, we really get to know schools that we work with, and so we understand what your school offers. We get to understand what kind of curriculum is available to you at your school, and so you're never going to be punished for not taking something that was not offered for you. So you definitely have the opportunity to be reviewed in the context of your high school. So the short answer is no where.

It's not going to suspend you to not take something that was not offered.

Alright, so going back to the essay. Are there any topics that you would not want to see in a college essay?

Well, I'll answer this and you know this is what this is a trick question because anything that we say here someone out there is going to say Oh no, that's what my essay was about.

I I'm gonna I'm not gonna complete this process in a positive way.

I don't know if we want to answer this question. Do we know now? I mean, that's The thing is that all of these? There are sometimes there are themes, you know, sometimes we see things that are. We can predict themes given on what's happening across this country or across the world. But you know it's well written essay that tells us something about yourself or one of your passions, or something you've experienced. I don't know. I've come across any essays and I thought I really wish that this person hadn't written essay about it.

And think Lisa and my teacher would agree.

I think most important is to have it be the student voice.

There are times that when you read the essay, you wonder that high school senior write that or did somebody else write that. So I just think it's important and then we can always talk about you don't want to write about how much you really want to go to, and you've inserted a different college name in there. Now that's not going to take you off of our radar. We're not going to ditch that file, but it shows that you haven't really done your proofreading, and you know if you spell check Swanee, it's replaced with the word sewage.

So just be cautious if you're putting Swanee in any of your materials to us, and you do spell check, double check the spell check.

So kinda in line with that, are there any just major red flags in applications?

That's a good question.

I mean, I, I think one for me. I mean we're talking about the essay right now, but one is just an essay that.

Yeah, I'll just add to that and it would mean depending on this, people who've logged in and what your application deadline is, it's too late for some of you. You submitted an essay, but I you know. Again, having two sons who've gone through this process and from the parent perspective, we tried really hard to let him do most of the work, but there, usually with some prodding involved, and every now and then I'll read an essay that's maybe 9 or 10. Sentence is long and I'm.

And it's not good. It really looks like it was just typed.

Nick

In you know I'm in 1/2 to 5 minutes, and what I envision is a parent like myself walking into a room and saying, hey son, please turn the Xbox off and finish your application. Turn it pausing the Xbox and on their phone, typing an essay, and then hitting submit being done with it, because that's how those essays read and so it's really. If you haven't submitted your application yet, you need to not be that person. Spend some time on it and make sure you proofread it.

And don't make it an Xbox paused submission submitted essay.

And I would say when you think about the list of activities and again we recognize that many of you on this call may have already submitted your application. And again you are welcome to email your admission counselor to say, oh, drat, I forgot to tell you this, or I just want to engage with you. You're welcome to do that after this session, but the student who doesn't go into any detail on their list of activities, and I've often used this example of the young woman who put down that she.

Blood donor and we kind of laughed at that a little bit. That was all the only activity she listed on her sheet. And you know, there's multiple spots. Well, it wasn't until reading one of her recommendations from a teacher an from her counselor and then reading her essay that we learned that she was not just a blood donor, but she organized the whole blood mobile at her school and her community too is recognized by the governor for being a high school student really involved. So I think sometimes my messages don't miss that opportunity to boast about yourself. It's OK to boast about yourself.

With honest information on that college application, because that's helping us just learn a little bit more about you and see about finding a spot for you on our campus.

So there's quite a few questions about international applications, and if there's a difference and like rigor of how we read international applicants as opposed to domestic applicants.

So I will answer that you know that Tim Neal is your counselor and you can always reach out to him. The international applications are reviewed with this much careful consideration reading the essay we're going to need English proficiency scores, so that's going to be required. Those will show up on your your checklist. And then there's also because we have to issue an I-20 in order for you to get your student visa. We also have to verify your financial status and so those additional documents are going to be required.

But all of those will be clearly marked on your applicant status page. You know it's competitive here at Swanee for admission. I think this year we're probably going to be at about 4849% as far as an admit rate. So you know, we just we're trying to find ways to admit students and is provided. You give us the information that we need to make. That careful review will do our best to make those decisions, but know that international students will need a few more items on their checklist for us to to review.

So there is a couple of questions about AP test and students who are able to take an AP test when their school doesn't offer that AP course, and so how do we? How do we view that when we're reading?

I don't know that I understand the question is. Are they saying that they're taking their school, doesn't offer the AP test errors course, but they're still taking the AP test, is that right?

So there was two that were kind of similar.

Yeah, AP test without taking the AP class.

Yeah Lisa, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if you take an AP test and you score a four or five, then you could submit those scores and they are considered somewhat in the review process but also by the Registrar's office in terms of getting credit for a course.

Not not replacing of course, but getting getting credit for that in your transcript. Is that right?

Yes.

And I think the other part of that question often is, you know, there's all this talk about AP. My school doesn't offer AP courses because of the type of school that it is, and that's back to what Letitia mentioned about we're going to read your application in the context of what's available at your high school. So we're not going to compare you to another school, say, well, gosh, that student took this many AP courses. We want to see if you've challenged yourself in your curriculum at your school.

And I think we've got time for just one more question. Maybe? Or if there are two great ones there queued up for a shiro? We're closing in on the hour.

I think one culminating one that's really good. And then there are some that are pretty specific and if we didn't get to him we will try to reach out to you guys individually, but one really good one is just overall like what are we looking for. It was the type of student that's going to Excel at Swanee.

Who wants to start? Yeah.

Yeah, I think we follow sorry Charlie. I was just gonna say I think we've all mentioned things about looking for students who have succeeded who were good students who were involved but but who we see as part of this community. Ann and we see fitting into this community and excelling and having academic and extracurricular and athletic interests that would really mold into this community. And so the academic success is important. 'cause we want those students too.

To succeed academically here, but the other parts of the application are.

Definitely important as well.

Yeah, I like to read an application and Fast forward to commencement.

And think what is that student's legacy going to be here?

You know, I know all the great things that are going to happen here. I know the great faculty you'll engage with the students will meet them all over the country in the world. Are you going to take advantage of all that and so on Commencement day when you're walking into All Saints Chapel and the faculty are congratulating you and saying, Oh my gosh, I'm so glad that you are going to be able to answer that question. They're going to know the things that you did here, and so we're not just admitting you to be a freshman first year student. We're admitting you to be a graduate of this place, and so that's a big responsibility for us.

It's a great opportunity for you when you present your application, but it's also a time for us to welcome some new students to this place to this domain that we know in four years are going to be really interesting. One of our former Vice Chancellors talk talked about it being a stronger, truer version of yourself.

That's pretty, that's pretty cool to think you're going to spend four years and be the stronger tour version of yourself once you graduate, so we're just trying to find students who we know will take advantage of that who will be academically qualified to do the work here, and will bring their their talent and show us what they have and make the most of it here.

Did I make the final comment? Is there anything else we want to?

So she will be able to follow up with some of the specific questions those of you listening in. Thank you. Thank you for being part of our afternoon admissions has been a great career for me for 39 years. Jeff, you've been doing this a long time Letitia, so clearly it makes for a great career. This might be the beginning of of a new job for you all. Someday in your future to be admissions people just like us know that we take our jobs very seriously. What we're doing here for the University is really important.

And we also are available for questions, so if you want to email any of us specifically or email your admissions counselor based on some things that were mentioned during this session or at anytime, please don't hesitate. We'd be happy to continue to engage with you all, and I want to thank our panelists. It was fun and Shiro thanks for running everything behind the scenes for us and then getting to be on the big screen. And we want to thank you all and hopefully some good news will be out the door soon for you all.

Thank you.

Thanks everyone.

Bye bye.

Bye.