I’m not sure how many of you are obsessively checking your status page to see if/when we have received your application materials, but rest assured, we are working very hard to get everything into the system. Our office consists of four staff members, plus Charlie our Dean, and it takes a lot of manpower to open, process and file all that mail. We are fueled primarily by coffee and tasty holiday treats that have enough sugar to take down a small pony.
So-do not despair if the affidavit you put in the mail on Saturday or Monday hasn’t appeared in the “Done” category on your status page. It will get there! The same goes for test scores- your application will not suffer if everything in your file is not complete this week, next week, or even the week after that. Rest assured that the processing elves (that’s us, minus the pointy ears) will get everything done, hopefully before Christmas, at which time we will convert to Application Reading Elves. Thanks for your patience everyone, and thanks for working so hard to get your application into our hands.
-Caitlin
Here we are, working hard (Caitlin on L, Emily on R)!!!!!
Thanks to Susan Johanson for the pic!
On Monday, the Olin community celebrated Olin College’s 10th birthday. In November 1997, we came into existence on paper- there were no buildings, faculty or students yet, but we were a college. The birthday celebration was a good opportunity to reflect on how far this college has come in such a short amount of time. The Board of Trustees and the President’s Council were on hand to celebrate with us, and one major event was the re-naming of the Olin Center. Those of you who have visited campus have been in the Olin Center, because that is where we in the Admission Office make our home. It is now named Milas Hall.
Larry Milas was hugely instrumental in getting Olin off the ground. He was the chair of the F.W. Olin Foundation, and had the vision and the drive to make a brand-new college appear out of thin air. In appreciation of his hard work, the Board and the President’s Council decided to surprise Larry by renaming the building in his honor. Judging by his reaction, he was incredibly surprised and touched. The students also presented a gift in honor of the birthday, and everyone had cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday Olin!
-Caitlin
Larry and his granddaughter revealing the new sign.
Every proper celebration needs an ice sculpture!
It’s getting on towards November, which means that a) Olin students are passing around a NASTY cold b) mid-semester projects and midterms are coming due and c) it’s 70 degrees outside. The first two make sense, and there may actually be a cause and effect relationship going on there. Letter C is throwing me for a loop. The leaves have turned beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow, and many of them are starting to fall to the ground. The sun is going down earlier and earlier each day and yet…. most of the students I saw yesterday were wearing shorts and flip-flops. This makes Halloween costume-planning difficult because to me, it feels like August, and as everyone knows, Halloween is not an August holiday. Still, I feel the need to come up with SOMETHING because the Faculty and Staff Costume Competition is happening next Wednesday in the Dining Hall. Hopefully inspiration will strike in the next few days.
Since November is rapidly approaching, that means that there is roughly one month left before our application deadline! We have some work to do on our end as well. We have to process all the pieces of paper that come in the mail each day, all those recommendations and transcripts and test score reports that you’ve been sending us. We also have to go through application reader training, form reading teams, and then train those teams. We’re excited to start reading your applications, so make sure to submit your materials as soon as they’re ready!
-Caitlin
Photo Credit: Kelcy Adamec, ‘09
Caitlin Snow
Assistant Director of Admission
781-292-2212
caitlin.snow@olin.edu
Hi!
If you’ve already read my “about me” page, you know that I am a relatively recent addition to the Olin admission office. I started working here in June, and spent the summer learning as much as I could about this place. I was surprised to learn that we would not be traveling extensively this fall. Normally, admission officers spend weeks at a time on the road, visiting high schools and attending college fairs. This is a great time to get to know prospective students and get a feel for high schools, but it is also very expensive and exhausting. We’re not traveling this fall for a variety of reasons and instead we hope that you can manage a visit to campus. We think that you can’t really get a sense of what Olin is all about until you come here and talk to us and our students.
So, here I am, sitting in my office on Thursday, October 4th. Am I just twiddling my thumbs, you ask? Far from it. We have a number of big community events coming up, including Career Initiatives Day and Family Weekend, that I am helping to organize. Our big Fall Open House is also approaching on October 28th, which is a great opportunity to chat with students, faculty and alumni, and let’s not forget the daily info sessions and tours. I am also the staff contact for our student blog, the Olinsider, which I encourage you to read. We have some new bloggers this year, including a senior, four juniors, and two freshmen. There will also be “guest blogger” opportunities for alumni and current students. These posts will give you a sense of the variety of experiences that students have while they are here, as well as the variety of personalities. So, rather than having a five-minute conversation with one of us admission officers at a college fair, you can check in with our student bloggers throughout the semester and post comments when one of their posts resonates with you. If you can swing it, we’d love to see you on campus this fall, either at our Open House, or at one of the info sessions. My favorite part of my job is talking to prospective students, so come say hi!
-Caitlin
781-292-2212
caitlin.snow@olin.edu
