<p>How does one become an admissions officer for the UC system?
What should I major in college?
How much do they get paid?</p>
<p>AHAHHAA everyone will hate you, and is that something you want to risk?</p>
<p>You hardly make any money…</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a particular major that’s required - do some volunteering or work-study in the admissions office if you can. Being an admissions officer (despite the “gatekeeper”) image is, to some degree, a sales position. You have to present the school to groups and individuals, convince students to apply and accepted students to matriculate. I’d say that excellent communication skills and personal presence would be essential. The less selective the school, the greater the “sales” emphasis.</p>
<p>Your undergraduate degree won’t matter, but you will want a Master’s degree in College Student Personnel, or Higher Education Administration, preferably from a UC school. To move up from that entry level job through the ranks, you will need a PhD in Educational Administration.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the UC system, but at many schools the “admissions counselor” job is held by young, energetic recent graduates. It’s a super first job, low pay but lots of interesting travel and valuable experience in salesmanship (marketing the school to parents, students, counselors) and evaluating people. All while doing something that may help change the lives of young people. It was my first job, and it was fabulous.</p>
<p>The money was crap, MomofWildChild is right about that. But the perks were nice. I travelled a lot on the school’s dime, and while the accommodations weren’t glamorous I saw a lot of different places and met many people. I also made some lifelong connections with people doing the same job, from other schools.</p>
<p>Most of my peers went on to do other things–it’s a great launching pad for other jobs. If you want to stay in the field, the pay gets better but so do the headaches and the stress (where it’s on YOU if applicant numbers go down, or yield falls, etc). But admissions people tend to be wonderful colleagues and great to know.</p>
<p>The UC’s are somewhat different than other schools. They all rely heavily on “admissions readers” to review the applications. They require the readers to have a background in education, including experience in a school setting. Here is a link to an article that describes what they do and the role they play at UCLA that should give you an idea of what they are looking for in readers: </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.today.ucla.edu/2002/020226classpick.html[/url]”>http://www.today.ucla.edu/2002/020226classpick.html</a></p>
<p>Michigan went to a reader system several years ago, but they continue to rely upon admissions counselors. The readers pretty much do nothing but read applications. The admissions counselors do more of that critical “outreach” always associated with the profession: they visit high schools, attend college fairs, answer student questions, deal with counselors, etc. </p>
<p>Again, I don’t know what the UC system does, but wanted to point out that readers don’t necessarily replace traditional admissions staff.</p>