Adam Epstein '05

‘Tis the season! All three of Ed, Jen, and Paige posted about the snow this weekend in the Worcester area; I do love snow, but I wasn’t able to get out much to enjoy it this time around. But, nearly two feet of snow later, I had a little fun with the internet as you’ll see below. Here’s to some holiday greetings from our staff!

First is (from left) Bonnie, Ed, Karen (hidden by play button), Katie and Julie:

And then Jay, Jen, Kait (hidden), me, and Michelle:

Enjoy! Our entire staff wishes you happy, safe, and restful holidays.

Reminder: The Admissions Office is closed December 24, 2008–January 5, 2009. Early Action Round 2 applications are due (submitted or postmarked) by January 1. I wrote last week about your application support materials; your application does need to be submitted, but support materials can follow as soon as possible after the new year. Our staff will respond to e-mail and phone messages once we reopen; if you have an urgent application question, please post here in the comments as well as e-mailing admissions@wpi.edu, and I’ll do my best to respond.

Update: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you may need to click through to view the animation. If not, you should be, so subscribe now!

I’ve been following an interesting development about groups on Facebook for the Class of 2013. It seems that a small group of people have created groups for a significant number of colleges and universities claiming that they are the “official” Class of 2013 groups. In reality they’re not the official groups, and they’re possibly all inter-connected.

Please be aware when joining groups that you should attempt to seek out those created by the institutions themselves. Your best bet is to check for a link to Facebook from the institution’s Web site. Admissions professionals are not creating groups because we want to monitor or control what you’re posting; we’re doing it for your benefit so you can connect with each other and the institution in a trusted location. The groups and pages WPI has on Facebook are in no way connected to your application review. I am a member and administrator of the group I’ve created, but I’m only going to jump in to answer questions when necessary.

With that said, please be aware of the groups you’re joining. If you are a part of one of our groups and interested in being an administrator, please contact me. Here are our official Facebook links:

• WPI Class of 2013 group
• WPI Admissions page

You’ve no doubt by now either heard about or experienced first hand the aftermath of last week’s New England ice storm, and now we’re expecting nearly a foot or more of snow in Worcester and the surrounding area today. The closure of schools (if you’re unaware, some will end up being closed for over three weeks including the holiday break!) has caused a lot of excitement for some and a lot of frustration and confusion for others.

We’ve had numerous calls and e-mails about our upcoming January 1 deadline for Early Action Round 2 application deadline. If you plan to apply for Early Action Round 2, you should submit or postmark your application by January 1. As always, we recommend not waiting until the very last moment in case you experience unforseen technical difficulty.

Your application support material from your school, e.g. transcript and letters of recommendation, do not need to be received by January 1; however, they should arrive as soon as possible after the deadline. Rest assured that if you’ve been out of school for a week already and haven’t been in touch with your school, you can still apply and be considered for Early Action Round 2. Please read my post on what to do after you’ve applied to ensure that your application file becomes complete.

If you are unable to meet the application deadline of January 1 because of circumstances from the storms, please call or e-mail our office. Please remember that WPI and the Admissions Office will be closed for the holiday break on December 24, 2008–January 5, 2009.

Congratulations!! Our first round of admission letters is reaching mailboxes across the country, and let me be among the first to congratulate those of you who have been offered admission to WPI in the Class of 2013! Now that you’re in, you can access our newly redesigned Admitted Student Web site. We know you still have a lot of questions and a lot of decisions to make, so to help we’ve compiled as much information as we can about WPI. Your login information is included with your offer of admission. Drop me a line in the comments if you’ve misplaced it or have any questions. Enjoy, and again congratulations!

It’s almost time for our Early Action Round 1 application decisions to hit the mail. I love my job, but I’m glad I don’t have to stay up most of the night signing the acceptance letters like the director last night! If you applied Early Action Round 1, you should be expecting a letter in the mail within the next week. Yes, the notification date is December 15, but depending upon where you live, the letter may take a few extra days. International applications should expect your letters to arrive by DHL.

If you don’t hear from us, your application file may be incomplete. We’ve been working very hard to complete all applications, but some are still missing pieces. If you have not heard from us about missing pieces and have not received a decision, before calling us please check with your school to ensure they’ve sent the appropriate information and check your junk e-mail and phone messages in case you missed our contact. Don’t worry, we’re not going to cancel your application if the materials arrive, but be sure to let us know they are coming!

It’s been great getting to know the first round of early action applicants, and I’m excited to welcome the first of our admitted students for the Class of 2013! Stay tuned for an exciting new release on the web early next week!

Meanwhile, I’m heading to an off-campus planning session for the morning to begin talking about our plans for the spring already!

I spent my recent Thanksgiving holiday weekend participating in many of the traditional activities, and these 3 Fs come straight to mind: food, family, and football. In addition to those staples, however, I also spent much of my time reviewing Early Action Round 1 applications to WPI. It struck me while watching college football that there may be some similarities between the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings and college admissions. Before you beat me to it: YES, I know that there is a strong argument that the BCS is flawed, and NO, I am not suggesting that college admissions is a flawed process.

As always, I’m writing about WPI, but you should keep in mind that each school has its and application review procedures, goals, priorities, and staff.

Quick background: the BCS is a system designed to rank the top teams in college football without bias and determine which teams will play each other for the national championship. The BCS also determines which other highly ranked teams will play in certain BCS bowl games. An important thing to know is that the system attempts to eliminate human bias, influence, and controversy from the final rankings by combining several polls and computer generated statistics.

Many people do not agree that the BCS ranking system is fair and would prefer a playoff system to determine the national champion. There are several points of contention with the BCS system, but one factor that I felt relates to college admissions is the notion that early losses are less detrimental than late losses, and late losses are by far worse than early losses and late wins. In the AP and USA Today human polls, teams and fans often feel that early losses don’t matter when the final rankings are released because the human voters overlook early pitfalls and reward late successes.

“Huh? I don’t get football. What’s he talking about? And why is he watching football while reading my application!?”

Look at it this way: you have four years of high school. When evaluating your application, I will be looking at the courses you have taken and the grades you have received in those courses. Essentially your curriculum and your performance. In football terms that would be your strength of schedule and your win-loss record.

The strength of your schedule (curriculum) is important because it tells us how you have been challenging yourself. Maybe you decided that you wanted to challenge yourself and take the strongest curriculum possible. Maybe you realized that you have strengths and interests in certain subjects and opted to take the highest level courses in those areas. Maybe you have a lot of out of school commitments and took strong courses in all areas but knew you weren’t able to handle the most challenging curriculum. Hopefyllu you’ve found the balance that works best for you.

Your win-loss record (grade performance) is important because it is the best indicator of performance and potential for future success. We look at grades for all four of your high school years. Sure we like to see great grades—in fact we love to see them! But in reality, you probably don’t have a 100% flawless record on your transcript. And that’s okay. But, when I’m looking at your transcript I would rather see a combination of “early losses” and “late wins” than vice-versa. That’s to say, if you don’t have a flawless record and there are some not-so-great grades, I’d rather see those be earlier with the trend pointing upward with a strong finish than the opposite.

Since I am a human being, I view each application differently. We do not use computers to evaluate or pre-evaulate applications. I (and the other staff members) physically look at and review each piece of information in each application. I have to make decisions based upon the information available to me, and we’re looking for students who have been successful and will be successful at WPI.

So what does all of this mean?

• You don’t need to have the strongest schedule an an undefeated record. What you do need to have is at least a strong schedule and a good record.
• Keep working hard, and don’t let senioritis get the best of you. We do not want to see your grades fall in the senior year when you’re in your hardest courses yet.
• Like I said, we’re more apt to overlook an early loss, so keep up the good work and show us that late win rather than that late loss!
• Focus your efforts on the big game. If you’re planning to study engineering, make sure you’re doing well in physics and calculus. If biology is your thing, keep that grade up. All of your grades are important, but we’re usually looking closest at the math and science ones.