Commencement: the end, or the beginning?

Well, it’s June! Congratulations to all you seniors have just graduated or are getting ready to walk across the stage and receive your hard-earned high school diploma. When you reach the end of a chapter in your life, you might be so excited to start the new chapter that you forget to relish the old! As one student wrote in our Admitted Student Facebook group: “Get me to Miami NOW!... Please? (:”

I don’t blame you. Miami is great. You will have four fantastic years here. This place will become a part of you and help to guide the rest of your life. But before you pack up and move on, take a moment to reflect on where you are, who you are, and the things you’ve done. Think about all the things you will miss: the people, the spots you love, the leadership roles you worked hard for, the familiarity of it all. Enjoy them one last time before you close that chapter.

I am also looking forward to a new chapter. Tomorrow is my last day as an Admission Counselor, and soon I will start a new role as Assistant Director of the Honors Program here at Miami. And while I am so excited to get started and dive right in working with all of you in the Honors Program, I have to take a moment to look around and reflect on the last three years I’ve spent in this office recruiting great students like you.

I will miss reading your inspiring application essays. I will miss walking into your high schools and picturing what your life must be like there. I will miss driving around your cities on your roads, stopping in your Starbucks or grabbing lunch at your Panera. I will miss answering the phone and hearing “Hi Mandy, it’s me again.” I will miss welcoming visitors to our campus and showing them how great life Miami can be. I will miss getting to know you and walking you through the stressful process that is college admission.

But, as you know, it is not the end. It is time for us to find out what new things we will love, what new things we will someday miss. And it’s time to dive in J

Summer in Oxford

Hi everyone! While the year has ended for current students, we are here all summer to welcome the Classes of 2015 and beyond! We will be hosting summer tours and information sessions for prospective students and families Monday through Friday and select Saturdays. You are more than welcome to register for these events at www.muohio.edu/visit. In addition, the office is now on Summer Hours, so our new schedule is 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

A question we are always asked when it comes touring colleges in the summer is, “Is it worth coming to campus when the students are not is session?” The answer is Absolutely!

While there aren’t 17,000 students roaming our campus, there are still about 3,000 students taking summer courses in Oxford. In addition, with the beauty of Miami in the summer, you won’t want to stop wandering around, providing you will the full sense of what our campus has to offer. Don’t be surprised when you see people walking through the Formal Gardens or playing volleyball on Western campus. The summer showcases the outdoor activities students have available. If you see me running in the Western Woods with my dog, please be sure to say hello!

Summer is Oxford is fantastic. People are always out and about, eating outside at restaurants or benches, listening to live music at the uptown park, or walking around town with ice cream. While many restaurants and stores do adjust to summer hours, getting a bite to eat, finding an activity or looking for a place to shop is not an issue. I feel extremely fortunate to have spent the better part of the last few summers in Oxford, and I hope when you visit Miami, you will get a small piece of that satisfaction.

As you make your visit this summer here are the top 5 things to do while you are at Miami.

Take a longer tour of campus: You will have the opportunity to have a normal campus tour, but take advantage of the nice weather and see parts of campus that the tour didn’t cover.

Explore an Academic Building: There are classes in session, so the academic buildings will be open. If you are a prospective engineering major, walk through the Engineering Building. If you a prospective business major, walk through the Farmer School of Business Building.

Talk to a Student: Even in the summer students choose to stay in Oxford. Find out why and what their Miami experience means to them. Students are always happy to talk to prospective families.

Visit the Uptown Park: There are a lot of activities happening at the Uptown Park in the summer. Be a part of it!

Eat at a restaurant Uptown: Many uptown restaurants have outdoor seating so you can enjoy the weather while you talk about your visit to Miami.

As always, if you have any questions about a summer visit, you are always welcome to contact your counselor which you can find at www.muohio.edu/askacounselor or call the Office of Admission at 513-529-2531.

The Unusual Beginning of the Rest of Your Life

Right now, the campus is still. At this point in the year, most students have packed up and left. Their absence is already being felt and unfortunately, it doesn’t feel very good. As someone who was personally counting down to the time when there was no line at Starbucks in the morning and no competition for treadmills at the Rec Center at 6:00 am, something about this feels wrong. It’s off. It’s that feeling when you complain about all the fishermen on the river banks only to return a week later and it’s just you and the fish. Instead of celebrating the isolation you reflect on how poignant chaos can be.

Don’t expect the sadness to linger. There won’t be time. The first summer orientation session kicks off in exactly 23 days. As a bystander, it doesn’t matter what campus you’re on –whether you’re in Omaha or Oxford—some orientation snapshots always look the same. Faces full of bewilderment, excitement, nervousness and anticipation. And those are just the parents! Orientation is for just that—orienting. In just a day and a half, it’s a jam packed schedule focusing on course registration, new student advising and simply getting a feel for the place.

Naturally, orientation segways into the real thing. College life. A new beginning whose structure, in some ways, is right on par with a laboratory. In fact, one definition of laboratory is, ‘a place for practice, observation or testing.’ And what a practice run this will be. Before you live (happily ever after we hope) with a spouse, you will live with a roommate. Before you devote your life to Early Childhood Education, you will explore comparative religion, political science, a semester of German and possibly French. Before you master spaghetti bolognese, you will be tempted with all kinds of foods and discover that the human body can function on a steady diet of mozzarella sticks and grilled cheese. Before you pick Minneapolis as your home after Oxford, you will have traveled to Beijing, Dijon and Washington, DC. During these “college years”, most of your best friends will live within a 1 mile radius of your hall and the majority of you will be sheltered from any kind of serious crime.

It’s unique. It’s unusual. But most new beginnings are.

For some of you, you’re transitioning from the only home you’ve ever known….. to a world full of freedom and tremendous responsibility. If you’re smart, you’ll follow the advice National Geographic dispenses to its audience daily: ‘Live Curious.’ It’s a necessary way to live, especially during that first year. It means combining your passion for Zoology and Women’s Studies. It means at least listening to what the College Democrats have to say at their meeting even though your heart is Republican. It means being open to that casting call from the Theatre Department for a hula dancing violinist dressed in purple and lending a helping hand when your roommate decides your door would look more festive with swabs of carpet.

Like I said, it’s unusual but most new beginnings are.

Full Circle

Of all the moments in the Admission cycle, this is by far my favorite. It’s that in-between time when acceptance letters have been sent out and confirmations begin to roll in. It’s the time when—unlike a lot of professions—you can physically witness the fruits of your labor. To paint a picture of our office, imagine a canvas where brush strokes illustrate words like contentment, excitement and pride.

Yesterday, Senior Associate Director Ann Larson whispered the phrase every Office of Admission wants to hear in May : “We made the class.” Translation—good work team. We were tasked with recruiting the best and the brightest, and somehow we managed to pull it off. Again :)

To quote our President, Dr. David Hodge:
“As a result of this effort, we have so far confirmed 3,648 students, which is right on our target goal. It is a very strong, academically accomplished group with a significant increase in the number and percentage of out-of-state and international students.”

In other words, we’ve come full circle. Rather—you have come full circle. For many of you, your introduction to Miami started with a visit to our website, a campus tour or visiting friends and family associated with the University. From that initial visit, a spark was somehow ignited. Fast forward and you went from filling out the Common Application, to a full-fledged candidate for admission, to an accepted student and then—a student with many options on the table. We might never know what sealed the deal for you to confirm. And that’s okay. Perhaps it was one of our Make It Miami accepted student events, or a final conversation with a counselor. It might have been our impressive statistics or maybe you connected with an enthusiastic alumna or alumnus. Whatever the case may be, it turned out that we became the priority option in front of you. And for that—we will always be grateful.

Speaking of gratitude, take a moment (in between the remaining senior year parties, Facebook posts and on-line residence hall furniture shopping) to remember what a gift this education is. You will spend many years on campus just thinking and learning, and meeting new people. It may not come neatly wrapped with a bow---but it’s the most significant gift you will ever receive. And you should not take it for granted. If not now, someday you will understand what this really means.

As you transition to college, know that another circle is about to begin. It starts off with orientation, meeting that friend who will turn into a lifelong friend, an amazing trip abroad or interest in a major that turns into your life’s passion. Before you know it, four years will have flown by and yet another circle will be complete.

As you begin this next chapter, take a moment to celebrate not only your impressive admission to Miami but also the foundation you built that got you here, right now, in this very moment. Congratulations Class of 2015--it’s now full speed ahead……

The Right Fit

Hey Everyone! I hope you are enjoying the last weeks of high school. We’ve certainly enjoyed seeing you here at Miami as we have had thousands of visitors this month. But rest assured if you have not gotten the chance to come to Oxford, you can always log on to www.muohio.edu/visit to schedule your information session and campus tour.

It’s hard to believe the year is coming to an end. Students are always amazed when they realize that the semester is over. Ask graduating seniors, and you will consistently hear, “I can’t believe it’s almost over! I never want to leave!”

I think that speaks volumes about the university. After four years, students have all of the skills necessary to succeed beyond college. Yet, students enjoy their collegiate experience to such an extent that they wish it could continue. This is something I encourage all of you graduating high school seniors to think about as you consider which school you will be attending. Do you feel like that when graduation comes four years from now, you will wish it will still be just a few more days away?

Undoubtedly you have been told about finding the right fit. The idea that you can see yourself spending the next four years on Miami’s campus even if you have only spent a few hours visiting the institution, can be daunting, but think about it like this:

Can you see yourself sitting in a classroom in any of the academic buildings, actively participating with your professor and classmates?

Can you see yourself playing Frisbee, hanging out with friends or doing homework on Central Quad?

Can you see yourself walking around the seal as you go class?

Can you see yourself walking under the Upham Arch?

Can you see yourself in the student section cheeringly rabidly for the Miami Hockey Team?

If you can see yourself making the most of the opportunities available to you as a college student; if you can see yourself as an active member of the college community; if you can see yourself being happy that you are a student of the university, then these are all signs that you are feeling the idea of the right fit.

So as you high school seniors countdown the days towards college and make that final decision, and even as you high school juniors and sophomores begin your college visits, ask yourselves these questions to see if the place you are visiting is the right fit. We certainly hope Miami will be that right fit for you!

I am not a parent.

I am not a parent. But, my younger brother is a 17-year-old high school junior who is just starting his college search. Let’s call him “Adam.” Adam has the distinct benefit of entering the college search process with an older sister who is a college admission counselor. But, finding the right fit is a process that is even hard for me to guide him through.

Even though I have a master’s degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education and work with students and families as they apply for admission at Miami, I can’t help but admit that I feel like a fish out of water when we start looking at the list of thousands and thousands of undergraduate institutions where he might spend his collegiate years. He has a few criteria: Division III football, a pre-Physical Therapy program, and not New Hampshire, where he is in school now.

My instinct as an Admission Counselor and a college graduate is to say that these criteria are stupid. Many schools, for example: Miami, have great club football teams that are comparable to Division III football, but he hasn’t really considered that as an option. In addition to that, Adam has only played football for two years; not so long that he should be making a major life choice that centers on it. I can certainly understand that Adam is an athlete and wants to continue playing sports at the highest competitive level that’s possible for him, but there are so many opportunities in college to do that outside of varsity sports!

While it’s great to look at academic programs when making your decision where to attend, I know that the average college student will change majors 2 or 3 times. Even more compelling is the statistic that college graduates will make 5 career changes in their lifetimes! But, my real hang-up with this one is that pre-Physical Therapy programs serve one function: to get students to take the right classes for admission into DPT programs. Any student with a computer can find the requirements for pre-PT and take those classes in college. So, Adam could really go anywhere and be pre-PT!

The last bit of information that we have to work with is that Adam doesn’t want to be in New Hampshire. I am trying to pinpoint why this is a criterion. Is it because he doesn’t like the state? Probably not. More likely, he doesn’t want to be in the middle of nowhere or covered in snow for 6 months. But right now, all I can get is “not New Hampshire.” Well, that crosses a few schools off the list.

One of the hardest things for me to do as a sister is allow Adam to make his own choices. We are lucky to have the resources to visit many different colleges, so Adam can get a feeling about a lot of different schools and narrow his focus that way. In the end, it’s his collegiate career, his future, and his experience to have. I owe it to him to let him work through all of these decisions and arrive at a conclusion about where he will attend. As long as he does it by May 1st, 2012!