candyman92486

Dana's Dad,

I completely understand how you might be skeptical as to my credentials. I am, as you know, a first-year student. You are correct when you state that I have only been at Lafayette for about four months, so your concern over the validity of my responses is well-taken.

Let me start out by saying that I am glad you are taking such a fatherly role on these message boards. After all, you never know what your daughter may be reading and/or believing. There is A LOT of incorrect information on this website, and as a member of an internet community, one must be able to differentiate the facts from the lies and exaggerations found on such a site.

I took a great interest to the college admissions process from the moment I began looking at colleges in my sophomore year of high school. I read anything and everything relating to the process, and was always eager to learn more. By the time I had decided on Lafayette, I must have read thousands of pages on how to write college essays, how to take the SATs, how to fill out each part of the application, how to put together an appropriate resume, how to conduct oneself during an interview, etc. Even after reading all I could find on the subject, I still felt the desire to learn more.

As a tour guide, I was required to study all aspects of Lafayette College before I could lead prospective students around campus. I know WAY too much about Lafayette, and love to share my "wealth of knowledge" during tours. I was determined to start giving tours ASAP, and within a month after arriving on campus, I had reached my goal.

As part of being a "tour guide", I find myself spending too much time in Markle Hall, home of the Office of Admissions. When I am not giving tours, I am answering phone calls, working the front desk, entering applicant data, or organizing/opening/filing the mail as it arrives to make the jobs of the admissions officers a bit easier.

I am amazed, as you are, at the amount of information I learned about the admissions process within a few short months. You must understand that, when I am not in class or doing homework, I spend the majority of my free time in the admissions office. I have always been a very curious and observant person, so naturally, I caught on quickly. The employees are always willing to answer my questions about how the process works, and they seem to have no problem sharing what they know (even if that means helping me look up specific percentages).

Any and all information that I have divulged on these boards is "fair game". I have NOT given out any pieces of confidential information. Nothing I have said up to this point would be cause for concern...I know this as a fact because everyone in the office is aware of what I do on this website. They are very pleased that I have taken on the added responsibility of answering prospective student questions on this board. They were actually considering hiring a person to do what I am doing for free.

ALL of the information I share is readily available if someone really wants to know. It might take a bit of effort to find out some of the smaller details, but it is out there...you just have to know where to look. So far, the only data I have EVER cited has been from personal experience or readily-available college factbooks. I base all of my hypothetical situations/generalizations on real data, but have never actually divulged the actual figues. Saying that some rate is "HIGH" and another is "LOW" really doesn't give anything away.

As you pointed out in your post, my ". . .brief experiences are of course subjectively valid. . .". When I tell someone what I think their chances of admission at Lafayette are, I am pulling from the knowledge that I have collected from the moment I began my college search three years ago. Three years is a lot of time to gather a lot of information if you have the determination and drive to do so. My opinions are as valid as the opinions of others when it comes to evaluating someone's chances of admission.

Dana's Dad, I know that I still have much to learn about the whole process, but I think I have enough knowledge to answer the kinds of questions asked in these forums with a sufficient amount of detail. I can only hope that the information I provide will prove useful to those asking the questions.

At this point I can only dream of being in the "admissions inner sanctum". Until then, I'll have to settle with what I've got.

J