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Dick
Vos, VP & Dean of Admission at Claremont McKenna College, Speaks
to Faculty and Students Additional
Links:
In his talk to faculty, he discussed how much the college admission landscape had changed during his career. Grade inflation, in particular, he said, has made it harder and harder for colleges to differentiate applicants based on the numbers alone.
“For example, we admitted just 16 percent of our applicant pool for 2009-10,” said Dean Vos. As a result, teacher recommendations have become “tremendously more important than they were years ago.” In fact, a teacher’s letter of recommendation can literally become the deciding factor in a student’s application. A
CCES Advantage According to Upper School history teacher Kristi Ferguson, one of the teachers most frequently asked for an academic recommendation, it takes at least two hours to draft each one. “And then I revise,” she added. Averaging some 15-20 letters a year, she puts in many extra hours writing recommendations.
“Since I teach the students as juniors, I focus on growth and maturity,” she said, explaining her approach. “I try to bring in actual examples of what the student has written, especially if the student is one of my IB seniors, because then I can discuss research done in the class. It is great when I am the senior thesis or extended essay advisor because I can talk about that, too. If the student is my advisee, I try to bring in something personal. When I wrote the ones last year, I was able to discuss our advisee volunteer time at the Sterling Recreation Center. “Our students have worked hard and accomplished a great deal by the time they are ready to apply to college,” said Mrs. Schulz. “Our faculty certainly do a superb job of preparing students academically.” “And,” she added, “through the letters they write for their students, they do an excellent job of giving them that extra edge when they apply to college.”
Mrs. Schulz emphasized that letters of recommendation are just one facet of the in-depth college counseling program devoted to CCES juniors and seniors. “Each year we welcome approximately fifty college representatives to campus to meet with interested students. That is another enormous advantage our students have in the competitive college admission process. By the time an admission officer receives our student’s application, he may already be able to put a face to the name.” In addition, the comprehensive college counseling program helps students assess what they are looking for in a college, assists them in narrowing their search, refining their application essays, applying for financial aid, and making the college choice that’s right for them. Mrs. Schulz and Associate Director of College Counseling Lauren Barden work with students, one on one, for as many hours as it takes to help them “build an appropriate and exciting college list and then to put their best application forward.” Parents are educated too about the college admission process. Dean Vos spoke to juniors and their parents at the required Grade 11 College Counseling meeting, explaining in detail what a school looks for in an application. "I
am personally grateful that the school is very committed to supporting
a highly personalized and instructional college counseling program,"
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