Fun with FERPA

Okay, folks.  I have a question for you.  In the past couple of years, we've seen a substantial increase in students not waiving their rights to their teacher and counselor recommendations.  I admit this seems odd to me.  You get to pick most of your recommenders; why wouldn't you trust their intentions?

Several years ago, when nearly every student waived their rights to review their recommendations later, I assumed that those who checked "no" had something to hide.*  Now it's common enough (maybe 5-10% of the pool?) that this can't be the case.  I can speculate on reasons -- from concern as to whether recommenders are doing their job to simple curiosity (after all, it's always nice to hear yourself praised!) -- but I obviously don't know for sure.

So here are my questions for you:

1) Did you spend any time thinking about this decision, or just default to what you thought was the obvious checkbox?

2) If you didn't waive your rights to your recommendations, why?

As a general rule you are not disadvantaged in Mudd's applicant pool if you declined to waive your rights.  In fact, just in the past twenty-four hours I've voted Admit on several students who checked the second box, and that's part of why I'm so curious: these are awesome students.  They are clearly beloved by their respective high schools.  Their teachers could not possibly fit more positive adjectives onto a single 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  So why not waive?

Chalk this up to nosiness.  I'm interested in knowing what, if anything, influenced your decision.

Thanks for your help!


*While this is my personal opinion, I confirmed via the magic of Google that it is not an uncommon one.  See discussion here, here, and here.

What makes an admit

You already know that admission is about much more than grades and scores.  (If it weren't, I wouldn't have a job.)  The vast majority of our applicants could do the work here at Mudd, so how do we choose among this group?  There's no hard and fast formula, but here are some of the things that are going through my head while I'm evaluating an application.


- Community impact.  What might this student do on campus, both in and out of the classroom?  How likely is it that this student will be a visible presence at Mudd beyond his or her immediate circle of friends?

- Character.  How does this student behave when nobody is watching?  Is this someone we can wholeheartedly trust with the responsibilities of the Honor Code?

- Course rigor.  Has the student taken full advantage of the most demanding courses at his or her particular high school?

- Writing ability.  Can this student edit, proofread, and structure an essay?  Will this student perform competently in a college-level writing class?

- Desire to tackle a challenging curriculum.  As we often say in our office, there are less painful ways to earn your bachelor's degree.  Students seeking an easy 4.0 would be mighty unhappy here.

- Desire to collaborate.  Not everyone's high school adventures in collaboration have been hunky dory.  We're looking for students who are willing to try again anyway.

- Understanding of and fit with Mudd's academics.  Liberal arts colleges offering majors exclusively in STEM fields are few and far between.  Toss in the general engineering program, and you're looking at a curriculum no other college replicates.  This can be pretty confusing for applicants, so we want to make sure future Mudders have at least a general grasp of what they'd be undertaking.

- Sense of humor.  Not a strict requirement, but very much appreciated!


Aside from course rigor (and, of course, grades), how do we glean all this stuff?  Well, that's the good news -- it all comes from materials over which you have control.  You write the essays.  You choose your recommenders.  We even ask you directly about why you're applying to Mudd -- what specifically about the community and curriculum appeals to you.  We're not shy about seeking the information we want.

You don't have to be a prizewinning writer for the essays to be a huge help; even factual, serious writing samples can tell us a lot about your aspirations and your character.  You don't have to be involved in every club under the sun to be a clear community contributor; a deeper involvement in one or two activities might be just as meaningful.  And you don't need to address every single one of these topics head-on in your application; chances are, we can read between the lines.

Do you have any questions about how we evaluate applications?  Let me know; I'd be happy to answer!

Totally unrelated photo of the new building construction in progress.  That crane is MASSIVE.  It has flashing signals for aircraft on top, and the arm of the crane is so high it's not even close to being in this picture.  Seriously, you have to see it in person (or from a plane, apparently).  HUGE.