Adam Epstein '05

Last night just before the the final Boston Red Sox game of the 2008 regular season, Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM), WPI’s male a cappella group, sang the national anthem.  SHM had the honor not only on the final day of the season, but also the day that Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky had his number retired.  Check out the YouTube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8v1vFnjYEM) of the performance.  What a great opportunity for the young men involved with one of WPI’s many extracurricular groups.  Enjoy!

If you are in high school, this is the time of year when colleges (often several per day) are visiting your high school.  You probably know the drill: daily reminders on the morning announcements, posters in the college counseling office, mail and e-mail announcing the visits, and permission slips and hall passes to actually get out of class.

If you’ve never attended a college visit at your school, you may wonder ‘what happens at these things anyway?’ or ‘why should I spend the time out of class talking with a college?’  Well, it all depends.  Colleges spend a lot of time and money (and we’re no exception) to visit your school, and when we’re visiting we like to see students (trust me on this one)!

For the sake of this post, I’ll call such visits ‘high school visits’ since that’s what we call them at WPI.  A high school visit can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.  Typically the admissions representative will set up an appointment in advance for a mutually convenient date and time—for example at the very beginning of the day, during a free period, at the start of a particular period, lunch, or after school—with the guidance, career planning, or college counseling office.  Most colleges will send an poster or flyer announcing the visit to the office.  Depending upon the college, you may receive mail or e-mail announcing the visit and be able to access a schedule on the institution’s Web site.

The specifics of the actual visit, again, vary from high school to high school and college to college.  Some schools require that some or all students attend visits.  Others require prior permission from a teacher whose class may be missed.  Others yet allow students to come and go as they please.

I’ve had visits that expect a formal presentation for 30–45 minutes (similar to a presentation I’d give to campus visitors).  More often I simply meet with any students who attend the visit and answer any and all questions they have about WPI, giving them information about the institution if they have little or no prior knowledge.  A guidance or college counselor typically meets with me as well, either with students or separately, to learn about WPI if they have little or no prior knowledge or to hear what’s new since we last spoke.  Occasionally the office I’m visiting is very hectic (or disorganized or uninterested), no students come, or both.  Those visits aren’t as fun for me, so there’s another reason to stop by!

The high school visit is a great opportunity for you to learn about various colleges, express your interest (many colleges, including us, track contacts with students), and get to know the college representatives.  Depending on the institution, you are likely to meet with a person who will actually see and read your application.  Putting a face with a name really helps when reviewing applications.  It is also a great opportunity for college representatives to learn more about your school and the current year’s students.

If you have just begun thinking about different colleges or are planning to apply to a significant number, you may need to prioritize which high school visits you want to attend.  It is inevitable due to classes, scheduling conflicts, or other factors that with dozens—sometimes hundreds—of high school visits throughout the year, you’ll be unable to attend a visit for an institution that interests you.  That’s okay; if it is an institution at the top of your list, you can make contact in plenty of other ways.  You can also ask your guidance or college counselor to get information and ask questions for you.

You may also not want to or b permitted to miss class to attend a high school visit.  If you are worried that you’ll fall behind or miss important information in class, you may consider speaking with your teacher in advance of the visit to let them know that the institution is of great interest to you.  More than likely, they’ll be flexible with you (at least I hope so).

I’ll reiterate: we’re visiting your schools to see you.  If you’re unable to make it to a particular campus, one of the next best options is meeting with a representative from that campus who has come to you.  Seeing students makes the visit for us that much better, so come on down!

I haven’t had much time to write this week while on the road, first in Denver and now in Seattle.  A few quick thoughts:

• I submitted a post to the inaugural edition of the Carnival of College Admission.   It’s basically a compliation of various experts’ (I use that term loosely since I don’t think I fit into that category myself) posts on their area of the college admission process.  Topics range from boarding schools to admission to financial aid to college life and more.  Check it out, and if you write about any of these topics, consider submitting a post.
• The Carnival was started by an independent college counselor based in Denver, Mark Montgomery.  I had a chance to meet Mark earlier this week, and we had great discussion on the business of college admission and life in general!
• As I mentioned, I’m now in Seattle at the 2008 NACAC Conference.  You may remember a while back when I wrote about attending NEACAC.  Well, NACAC is essentially the same conference but on a much larger, national scale!  There are nearly 6,000 professionals in the college admission counseling business gathered in Seattle.  It’s a great time thus far, and there are still a few days to go!  I’ll write about some of the things I learned over the next few days.  That is, of course, if I can fit it in while on my way to Hawaii! ;)

Whatever your baseball allegiances may be, tonight is a memorable night with the final game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  I did grow up a Yankee fan, and I had the opportunity to see several games at the stadium.  Pretty impressive place.  I caught the tail end of some of the pre-game coverage (I was doing interviews of students this evening, but they ended early enough with the time difference) as well as the game itself (still only in the first inning), and I have to say that it is pretty weird that it is indeed the last game.  I hope if you’re a fan of baseball, you saw some of this coverage.  Apparently there’s a lot of competing television tonight with Sunday Night Football and the Emmy’s!

Since I usually post about WPI, I’ll just let you know that you don’t have to be a Red Sox fan to be a student at WPI.  I’ll also let you know that your preferences won’t make any difference in admission.  However, if you enroll: you better either like the Red Sox, be neutral, or be able to hold your own (particularly if you do happen to be a Yankee fan)!

Yes, today is my only day in the office this week and my last day for quite some time, but I am still saying TGIF!  I returned yesterday afternoon and immediately finished some lingering items on my to-do list.  Today is more of the same including some follow up from my week of travel and preparation for the next two.  I do however have a few exciting items to share today!

First, our newly redesigned WPI Web Application is complete and waiting for you!  You probably won’t realize the extent of the changes, but it’s safe to say that this new application is a huge improvement!  And it’s live on the Web which means you can apply now—check it out!  You can also check out our other application options.

Second, I’m particularly pleased to announce that our Virtual Viewbook is online!  This project is one on which I worked closely, so I’m happy to see it complete and online.  I hope you’ll find the technology to be cool and the information useful.  There’s a lot of video and interactivity, and we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Some of you have also discovered that we’ve been exploring the world of Twitter.  I actually got the idea to jump into the Twitter world from a colleague at another institution, but once I did, I took it even further and created several accounts that can keep you up to date.  You can choose to follow some or all of them:

• WPI Admissions will be used to make Admissions announcements, let you know of upcoming events, and remind you of Admissions and Financial Aid deadlines.
• WPI Athletics keeps you up to date with the progress of our Athletics Department and the varsity teams.
• WPI Blogs is another resource for you to keep current with the most recent posts from our student and staff blogs.
• WPI News automatically updates you with university news, media postings, and perspectives.

With Parents Weekend starting today at WPI, the campus is very active!  We’ll look for you here or on the road!

Last month WPI announced a partnership with Zipcar, an organization providing individuals the ability to rent cars by the hour or day! Zipcar is prominent in major cities in the United States and Canada, and its presence is increasing on college campuses. A special rate of Zipcar membership is available to WPI students, faculty, and staff, and initially we will have two Honda Civic Hybrid Zipcars living at WPI (if the program is popular, I’m sure we’ll add more!)

Personally, I think this is very cool.  I’ve always been a little bit jealous of the Zipsters when I see them on the road.  Sure, I have my own car, but I find the whole idea behind Zipcar to be pretty fascinating.  Not to mention the technology they use to make it happen.

Of the students with whom I have spoken, they also think this is pretty cool!  For those students who do not have a car or who cannot have a car on campus, Zipcar is a great opportunity for them to be able to go places they might not otherwise go.  Sure there’s plenty to do in Worcester, but for that trip home, to go skiing or to the beach, or just out for a drive, Zipcar will allow any of our students that freedom!

Furthermore with the Zipcar partnership, we continue our commitment to sustainability at WPI.  If less WPI students require cars and can use Zipcars, that’s good for everyone.  And, as I mentioned earlier, the cars chosen are hybrid vehicles.  It seems like green is hot now, if you haven’t heard.

And… I signed up!  I’m sure that’s what WPI and Zipcar wanted, but I figured that with my travel schedule taking me to numerous places where Zipcars live, it might actually be convenient for me to be able to use one.  In fact, when I’m in Seattle next weekend I might zip out of town during some free time on Saturday.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

What are your thoughts about Zipcar at WPI?

Well, tomorrow marks the beginning of my fall travel schedule.  I’ve been furiously preparing for the travel season, and I feel almost entirely ready at this point.  I still have some loose ends to tie up before I leave the office today (I’d put a 90% chance of me being in here at some point tomorrow because of something I forget).

So what does my travel include?  A general overview of the next nine weeks:

• 3 evening information sessions
• 16 evenings of interviews
• 19 days of high school visits covering nearly 90 high schools
• 4 college fairs
• 1 guidance counselor breakfast event
• 1 national conference
• and countless students, families, and counselors!

Add to all of that the actual travel plans and destinations:

• 14 airplane flights
• numerous rental cars–and perhaps a stint with Zipcar (more on that to come in a separate post)
• 8 destination states—California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington—and several others through which I’ll pass en route
• I don’t even know how many hotels…
• …and miles traveled?  I’ll do my best to track them! :)

Remember, I’m on the road to meet you!  This itinerary sounds like a ton of fun, but having the opportunity to interact with you is what will make it really worthwhile.  And, remember, we have close to 10 staff members on the road with similar schedules.  There’s a great chance that we’ll be coming to your area, so please try to connect with us while were there.

As for right now, I’m frantically wrapping things up at the office that won’t travel with me.  Thankfully I will stay well connected to happenings here via e-mail and the internet, and I’ll be sure to post here as I go.  See you on the road!

The first of our off-campus evening information sessions is a week from today, so I wanted to take this opportunity to update you about what to expect if you are planning to attend or considering attending one.

Each evening session will be led by two members of the Admissions counseling staff (with the exception of Bethesda, MD where I’ll be flying solo) along with other members of the WPI community.  Upon arrival at the location (either a local hotel or high school), we’ll welcome you and give you some information about WPI.  There will be refreshments! :)

Shortly after 7 p.m., we’ll begin the formal presentation.  We’ll spend about 75 minutes and cover information about academics including the WPI Plan, campus resources, residential life, student activities, admissions, financial aid, and Worcester and the surrounding area.  We’ll also show a brief video during which you’ll hear from WPI students and faculty members.

Either during the presentation or immediately following it (or sometimes both!) we’ll invite your questions.  It’s our goal to give you information as thoroughly as possible, so we’ll answer any and all questions that you have about WPI and the college application process.  I always like to joke that you can ask questions all night since I am, after all, staying overnight at the hotel where the session is held.  So far, no one has kept me all night… but who knows!  Of course, if you have to leave, you may; but you’re also welcome to stay for the entire Q&A session or ask individual questions as well.

I did mention that “other members” of the WPI community would be in attendance.  At each session we bring current students (if the location is close enoguh to campus) and invite local alumni.  You’ll have the opportunity to hear directly from them about their WPI experiences and ask them questions as well.  They’ll also chat with you before and after the session.

You may have already visited campus and be thinking to yourself, “I think I know all of this stuff already.”  That may be true if you’re a college visit superstar and regularly read our blogs, but campus is always changing and growing, so there will probably be some new information we’ll share.  At the least, you may meet some other students and families in your area also planning to apply to WPI.

On the other hand, if you’ve never visited campus, the evening session will be a perfect introduction to WPI for you—especially if you live a distance from campus!

If you know that you are planning to join us, we do request that you let us know on the evening session site.  However, if you’re not yet sure of your plans or decide at the last minute to attend, please don’t worry about the RSVP—just show up!

We can’t wait to meet you on the road!  I’ll see you in Bethesda, Melville, and Philadelphia!

This morning I posted our fall international interview locations which completes the full fall schedule of off-campus interviews.  If you cannot make it to campus before applying, or even if you already have visited, an interview is a great way to learn more about WPI and for our staff to learn more about you in a one-on-one setting.  We’ll be happy to answer your (and your parents’) questions about WPI.  Interviews are not required as part of the admissions process.

In addition to our two staff blogs (mine and Ed’s), we have three student blogs:

• Jen – http://himma2.blogspot.com
  Jen is a senior majoring in Civil & Environmental Engineering.  Her blog originally started to chronicle her project experience in Australia last spring.  I came across it and asked if we could feature it on our site, which we did.  Jen is now continuing her blog for her senior year.
• Paige M – http://getyourgoaton.blogspot.com
  Paige is also a senior; her major is Actuarial Mathematics which she describes as applying mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in the insurance and finance industries.  Paige has been very involved on campus, and we’re happy she will be blogging her senior year as well!
• Paige B – http://rockinmorocco.blogspot.com
  Paige is a junior majoring in Biomedical Engineering and is completing her Interactive Project this term (A-Term 2008) in Ifrane, Morocco.  The Morocco project center is one of our newer centers, and this is only the first year for Interactive Projects there.  I don’t know anything about Paige’s project other than what she has already posted, so we’ll learn about it together.

I hope you enjoy all of the blogs.  I should note that the student blog population is not representative of the WPI student population nor did we plan it that way.  It just happened that all of our bloggers are women.  We’ll get a guy on board soon!

I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.