The OLINformer

Just kidding!

Actually, I’ve just returned from the annual NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Other than the nasty cold I caught - and the corresponding raspy Kathleen Turner voice that developed! - it was a terrific trip. I’ve been attending the conference for several years now and it’s a great way for ALL college counseling professionals (on both “sides of the desk”) to share ideas and discuss the various issues facing everyone involved in the college search process - students, high school counselors, and colleges alike.

One of the highlights of the conference is the Counselors’ College Fair, which provides an opportunity for all national conference attendees to network with colleagues and meet with representatives from approximately 425 colleges and universities. Now, I’m sure that many of you have spent several hours wandering the aisles of your local college fairs, filling out information cards and asking probing questions! This time, it was your counselors’ turn and, luckily, they didn’t have to fill out hundreds of information cards - in this case, we chat and answer questions and in the end, the counselors leave us with their business cards so that we can send more information.

Duncan Murdoch, Western Regional Director, and I manned the Olin College table with pride (and a fair amount of coffee in our systems)! I would like to say that I managed some engineering magic with a binder clip and paper clip - The representative from Franklin & Marshall didn’t have a table we figured out how to hang her pennant (with the aforementioned clips, dug out of the bottom of my travel bag) and create some space for her. HEY! I’m not an engineer, so let me relish the small victories! At any rate, it was a really good fair and we got to talk to a ton of counselors… we were so busy, that that we lost track of time and the powers that be had to dim the lights to get people to leave!

Another highlight was a presentation on the “Blog Revolution.” Moderated by Matt McGann at MIT (yeah, yeah, I’m sure many of you are familiar with Matt and his blog!) with presentations by Ben Jones (MIT), Daniel Creasy (Johns Hopkins) and Emily Roper (Tufts University, formerly of Olin College). It was fascinating to see how important blogging can be in the college search/admission process and how it is literally changing the face of some college’s admission websites.

So with that in mind, thanks for reading! And please stay in touch - leave a comment, send an email or IM me!

Take care,
Allison

allison.bahme@olin.edu
781-292-2203
IM: OlinAdmission
www.olin.edu