All about the alternate list

I'm going to be writing a lot this month about the admitted students.  That's just what happens in April, what with yield events, the Admitted Student Program, and the chance to win everlasting glory by sweeping the betting pool we have going for the number of deposited first-year students by May 1 (I've got my money on 187).  But there's another group that is still very much on my mind, and that is the alternate list.  I know there are a lot of misconceptions about the alternate list, including why we even have one in the first place, so bear with me while I try to explain how exactly the alternate list works.  And, of course, if there's anything I left out, please leave your question in the comments section, and I'll update the post with your suggestion.

First, let's talk about the depressing stuff.  The reality of a selective college admission process means that there are many deserving students who are not admitted to HMC.  There just isn't space.  To keep our classes small and our dorms at reasonable capacity, we can only admit a fraction of the students we find compelling.  Then we cross our fingers, do a rain dance, and hope for the sake of our jobs that we will yield a class of 195 students or fewer.

Here's where the alternate list comes in.  We've set 195 students as our target goal for the Class of 2015.  If, say, 228 admitted students decide to enroll, then we cry and turn over our offices as auxiliary dorm space -- and nobody gets admitted off the alternate list.  If, however, the May 1 deadline passes, and there are still spots left in the first-year class, then we can turn our attention to the alternate list.  This is, in fact, the outcome we want -- it's much better to come in under the target and add more students one by one than it is to run the risk of over enrollment.  And on a more personal level, we'd all be excited to be able to pull some of our favorite candidates into the class.  So that's the best case scenario -- May 1 arrives, we reconvene the admission committee, we make happy phone calls.

An artistic interpretation of the happy phone call (hamster optional)

 

For the sake of honesty, I need to tell you that for the past several years, there have been no happy phone calls.  But before you roll your eyes and/or spit at the computer screen, let me explain why this does not necessarily predict this year's outcome.  In addition to the natural fluctuations that occur in any process involving real people (and a relatively small sample size of real people, at that), we also made a conscious choice to admit fewer students this year.  23 fewer students, to be precise.  While this made for some difficult selections at the end of the regular decision committee -- I can tell you, just off the top of my head, 23 students I wish were in the class right now -- it means (we hope) that we will be able to use the alternate list.  There's no guarantee.  It's possible that all 228 students I used as an example earlier will decide to enroll, and I'll be blogging from under a shrub next year instead of my comfortably climate-controlled office with a mini-fridge.  But please know that we've tried our best to make the alternate list a viable possibility.

Unfortunately, the most frustrating hallmark of a wait list is waiting.  We won't have any new information to give you until after the May 1 response deadline.  But in the meantime, there's one important thing you can do -- and that's update us.  If Mudd is still a school in which you're interested, tell us!  Send us a quick e-mail or a letter reiterating your interest and giving us a few updates on things happening in your life.  Things can change quickly senior year; maybe your interest in chemistry has solidified since you wrote your essays back in December, or maybe the debate team you joined on a lark has turned out to be a serious interest.  By all means, tell us.  And tell us prior to May 1, because if we're able to move to the alternate list, we'll do it quickly; there won't be any lag time between "Guess what? Spots have opened up" and "Congratulations! One of them is yours." 

In the meantime, this is your chance to explore your other college options.  You just might find, as I did, that the "extra" college on your list turns out to be your dream school.

Image from flickr

A quick breather & assorted updates

After the decision letters go out, it seems like there should be plenty of free time here on the HMC ranch. In reality? Not so much. My grand visions of a Text Twist Tournament and carefree ambles to the coffee cart have been replaced by a decently sized to-do list and the shame of realizing that yes, there is a typo in the admit packet (which is, regrettably, 100% my fault). Here's a hodgepodge list of what's currently happening in the admission office:

• Financial Aid offers were mailed yesterday. Gilma, Les, Monica, and Jean stayed until 11:30 pm and got the offers out ahead of schedule. Hooray FinAid!
• Spring break time = lots of visitors. Today alone we're expecting nearly 100 guests. In my information session yesterday I had families from states including Alaska, New York, Massachusetts, Indiana, Florida, and Colorado.
• Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries is speaking tonight at Scripps College.  I plan to be front and center.
• This timely piece on NPR gives a scarily accurate depiction of the selective college admission process (right down to the cookies). 
• The Admitted Student Program is coming up in less than two weeks. Egads. That's not a lot of time to prep. There are already more than 50 students signed up, which is very exciting, but . . . two weeks? Seriously?

So it's back to work -- e-mails to send, an online chat to plan, and tour guides to wrangle.

But first, maybe one small trip to the coffee cart. 

The End Is The Beginning

Today’s committee, where we stuff admit packets and prepare letters to mail, marks the end of reading season. We’ve read every application, discussed them all (sometimes at great length), and made our decisions, and now we’re finally going to let our applicants know about the results of all of that work. (Letters are going out this afternoon!)

The assembly line, hard at work! Mad props to our intrepid senior interviewer Becky, in the center, who was a dedicated assembler for the entire process.

It’s exciting for us to have a class finally set. We finally know exactly who we’re offering admission to, and have some idea of who we can expect to see on campus next year. At the same time, though, we also know exactly who we aren’t admitting. The prospect of disappointing 5/6 of our applicants is, well, somewhat depressing. We received a multitude of fabulous applications from amazing students that we read, loved, and ultimately placed on the alternate list or denied.

I comfort myself with the thought that even though some of those amazing students didn’t get into Mudd, they’ll end up going somewhere else almost as cool. And everyone in our pool, regardless of what their letters say, has an exciting decision ahead of them.

Ready, Set . . .

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the third image?  Hint: it's a screenshot . . .

Regular Decision FAQs

First, that chocolate I featured in the last post?  Totally gone.  Within 24 hours.  What can I say?  Committee is draining.  We've still got more work ahead of us, but I wanted to give you a quick update on what to expect regarding regular decision.  Here are a few questions we've been getting:

When are you going to mail the decision letters?  Please say it's soon!
Our official notification date is April 1; we are hoping to have letters in your hands even earlier.  I'll put up a post on the blog when the letters are finally dispatched!

Do you e-mail admission decisions?
Nope.  We believe in the power of the old-fashioned Big Envelope.  It will make you feel like a rock star.  Update: we do e-mail anyone living overseas, simply because regular mail can take so long to arrive.  We give the snail-mail letters a bit of a head start just to be fair.  And of course international students will also receive paper copies of the decision letter.

Will my financial aid information be inside this fancy-pants Big Envelope?

Sadly, no.  Our financial aid awards are mailed separately, usually within a week of the admission decisions.  We have a financial aid staff of three and they're working hard to put together aid packages as quickly as possible.  You can speed up this process by making sure all your documents are in order.  Otherwise you'll just get a letter telling you to submit more paperwork, and that's not at all exciting.

When will I learn about merit scholarships?

If you're selected as a recipient for the Harvey S Mudd Merit Award or the FIRST Robotics Scholarship, this information will be included with your admit letter.  President's Scholars Program finalists will be notified via e-mail and brought to campus for an interview on April 9; we'll select the awardees a few days later.  National Merit Scholarships are given to any student who is a National Merit Finalist, is not matched with a scholarship through NMSC, and names HMC as his or her top choice school.  So if you're a National Merit Finalist, it's safe to assume you will receive an award of some kind.

Will you have some sort of on-campus program for admitted students? 
Absolutely!  It will include cookies, mathemagics, unicycles, research presentations, bonfires, and anything else we can dream up between now and the second weekend in April.  There will be more details in your admitted student packet (see, I told you the envelope was important). 

It's back to work for now, but please let me know if you have any questions about the regular decision process -- I'll update the FAQs accordingly!

Crunch Time

It's finally happening.  We're pulling into the home stretch of Regular Decision.  The long days at home reading files have turned into long days at work discussing applications around our conference room table.  I actually felt nostalgic as I perused applications at Le Pain Quotidien this weekend.  Sniff sniff.  I like reading season.

For me committee always brings mixed emotions.  In a perfect world, the entering class size, like the seating in the dining hall, would always be n + 1; reality, unfortunately, is not so accommodating.  It's thrilling to watch the Class of 2015 take shape, but not so delightful to confront the physical limitations that bind our decisions.  You applied to Mudd because you want a low student-professor ratio, great research opportunities, and an intimate residential community; maintaining those require that we not admit every single student we admire and consider potentially successful.  And that's painful.

The sheer volume of paper involved in the Regular Decision process is nothing short of staggering.  Aileen's office (top photo) has been completely taken over by buckets of applications, and there are again as many buckets stashed in auxiliary locations throughout Kingston.  You've heard the disparaging term "paper pusher" used for office workers; judging from how much time we spend physically carting around admission files, I can't deny the phrase is apt.  I'm building some serious muscle from toting the file bins.  Paper is heavy!

Here's the 13,000th photo of the committee room, where we spend all our daylight hours. I'm responsible for signing off on our decisions for each candidate.  Note the official red pen.

Also note the giant bar of chocolate.  I'm responsible for this too.

Where to take your parents on parents' weekend

Okay, let's be realistic.  When Claremont students go out to eat, they're not likely to go anywhere terribly fancy.  Think In-N-Out, all-you-can-eat sushi, maybe delivery-until-2-am Thai food.  Even "dates" tend to be more along the lines of "let's go to Taco Tuesday at the dining hall."  Very romantic.  But there's one weekend where Claremont students flood the Village for gourmet food and a welcome break from the dining hall routine -- and that would be, yes, parents' weekend (really, parents' weekends, plural), which the 5Cs host in successive weekends each February.  So the next time you're wondering where to dine when someone else is paying for it, here are a few of my favorite establishments.

• La Piccoletta.  This tiny restaurant (pictured above) is literally off the beaten track, hidden in an alley, but that just means you'll feel much more hip for finding it.  They serve one type of pasta each night with your choice of up to four sauces.  You'll need a reservation, but it's so worth it.
• The Press.  The sourdough rolls, the nachos, the panoply of vegetarian/vegan options, the atmosphere . . . this one of my all-time favorites.  And if you're into the live music scene, the Press is your best bet.
• Claremont Juice Company.  This is really a lunch place, but if you're from a cold-weather part of the world, you'll definitely want to take your parents here so you can showcase the fantabulousness of California weather (in February, no less).  The sandwiches and smoothies are classic California cuisine, and the back patio is the perfect place to bask in the sun.  There's no website, unfortunately, so you'll just have to take my word for how relaxing it is.
• Le Pain Quotidien.  I know I already mentioned this in a previous post, but this is a definite must, particularly for breakfast.  I took my own parents here recently and they were just as head-over-heels as me -- the bread basket completely made their day.
• If you feel like an adventure and you have access to a motor vehicle, then Din Tai Fung in Arcadia is the ultimate California experience.  Shanghai soup dumplings are hard to find and these are considered the best in the world.  Come really, really hungry, because you will want to eat as much as humanly possible.  

And if these options don't suit you, who knows?  Your parents might just love In-N-Out.

Photo via lapiccoletta.com.