Hello from a Tufts Admissions Guy

DanAdmiss_Tufts
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:24:11 +0000

I posted this in the welcome thread that Roger_Dooley so generously set up for myself and my office-mate, Jon, but I’d like to introduce myself is a more discrete way… so I hope you’ll indulge my double post:

Greetings CollegeConfidential posters!

Thanks to those of you who have posted with warm welcomes, and special thanks to the Tufts students who diligently helped so many prospective students with their questions and concerns. They’ve done a lot to keep the Tufts forum civilized and informative, and I can only hope to match their humor and patience on these boards.

I’m Dan, if you can’t tell from my user name, and I’ve just finished up my first year in admissions and am tremendously excited to be entering into my second. I was a Tufts student before that, and I have a lot of love and admiration for my Alma Mater and current employer. Having said that, I want all of you to know that I place a high premium on transparency and honesty. I believe that the lack of transparency feeds anxiety, and that anxiety in turn presents a barrier to an effective application (aside: I sound like Yoda… “Fear leads to anger, Anger leads to hatred, and hatred leads to the dark side.”) I really believe that admissions works better when you understand the process and how to make a better application. I’m looking forward to helping many of you see how to best represent yourself and helping you understand why success is easier if you stay calm, have fun, and tell us the things that YOU WANT TO SAY as opposed to the things you think we want to hear.

Given that perspective on admissions, it’s only natural that I approach presenting Tufts the same way. I believe that schools receive better applicants (both in terms of “Fit” and ability) if we are honest about the schools we represent. And it is in that spirit that I’ve decided to enter the college confidential community.

Here is what I won’t do: I will not chance you. And this includes all sorts of variations on chancing like, “How much does a ten point boost on my SATs help?” or “Should I have another leadership activity on my resume?”

Here is why I won’t do those things: Answering those questions honestly is impossible. So much of whether or not those things make a difference depends on what we hear from you in your writing, from your teachers, and from your transcript. One of the challenges of approaching admissions holistically and of being interested in you as a human being is that every evaluation we make is contextual and based on how the pieces of an application fit together; nothing stands alone. I recognize how frustrating that can be, but there’s a big advantage to do admissions like that - you get to know that the class we bring in each year is fun, intellectual, and interesting. In short, it’s a class worth being a part of. Just like we trust you to be honest with us on your applications, I ask you to trust that we do everything we can to be fair and to fill our class with cool, dynamic, spirited (and smart) kids.

I’m thrilled to be joining the CC community, and even more excited to get to know many of you over the coming year.