It’s Saturday, October 19, exactly 167 years to-the-day after the first of my ancestors to come to America arrived in the United States at the port of New Orleans, on a ship from Bremen, Germany called Manco. In fact, it was so long ago, Germany wasn’t even a country then. If you’re interested, here’s the […]
I admit it: At times I like provocative headlines to shake things up a bit. But I think this one is worth thinking about. Recently, on my other blog, Higher Ed Data Stories, I published a re-formatted Tableau visualization from the Chronicle of Higher Education. You can look at it here. The takeaway is that […]
I plan to keep writing using words, but I’ve also become interested in telling stories with data; and I think the stories I’m most qualified to tell are about higher education. So, I’ve launced a new blog called Higher Education Data Stories. I hope you’ll check it out, and I hope you find it interesting. […]
Lots of my colleagues are back from Toronto, where they attended the NACAC Conference. Lots of discussion this year, as in previous years, has focused on “stealth applicants.” I’ve never liked this term from the very first time I heard it. In fact, I find it offensive. For those of you who don’t know, stealth […]
Or maybe I should say a second apology. And there will probably be more to come. I had previously written an apology about how well-meaning admissions officers of my era contributed to the collective angst of a generation by using and repeating the phrase “choosing a college is one of the most important choices you’ll ever make.” […]
I like to write, and I especially like to tweet and blog, because I can dash off some thoughts without too much concern about getting it just perfect. Most of what I put here is essentially a first draft, sometimes with a quick review for grammar, spelling, parallel construction, dangling antecedents and other obvious mistakes. […]
Have you heard? It’s the end of April, which means it’s almost May 1. If you don’t know what that means, or why it’s so important to people like me, you’re not in admissions or enrollment management or financial aid. We all know. And it has nothing to do with dancing around poles with streamers. May 1 […]
I promised myself at a very young age I was not going to turn into my father. That promise now lies tattered and torn along the primrose path of my youth and middle age. Admissions has its cycles, most days somewhat less dramatic than The Great Circle of Life featured in the Lion King. Or […]
Admissions people, far and wide, it’s time to cool it. In the last couple days the heat on Suzie Lee Weiss seems to have turned up. I even got into it with a blog post about her a couple of days ago, implying, but not saying that she was a “spoiled, vapid teenager.” My point […]
You’ve undoubtedly heard by now about Suzy Lee Weiss, the young woman who wrote To All the Colleges That Rejected Me in the Wall Street Journal. The privileged Ms. Weiss, it seems, felt bruised and battered by the college admissions process. Or did she? She’s now suggesting that her article was intended as satire; indeed most people who cite […]
Jon Boeckenstedt's Admissions Weblog 