Every 4 years, the world stops for me. A leap year birthday you ask? No, the globe’s most popular sporting event, the World Cup, is upon us. As a lifelong soccer aficionado, countless hours of watching international friendlies and qualifiers culminates in a month long buffet of the best football/soccer. As I sat up last night catching up on the day’s results and goals, it occurred to me that my love of “the beautiful game” has interesting parallels to my professional life.
In soccer, anyone can win at any time. While this is true in other sports, it is nowhere more apparent that at the World Cup where success is never assured. Much prognostication about the matches played is based on pedigree – the global football powers who are expected to offer the upstarts who found their way into the tournament a quick dose of reality. Teams like Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, England and Argentina are expected to dominate while the South Korea’s and Honduras’ are told they should just be happy to be there. But a funny thing happens when these teams get together on a new continent – nothing is assured.
This is similar in the college selection process. From practically infancy, children are told they must strive to gain admission to the “best” schools, the schools that reputations and U.S. News tells us will offer graduates a path paved in gold to success. What conventional wisdom neglects to take into consideration though is that the students applying to colleges and universities each year are INDIVIDUALS, and need to be treated as such. What do I mean by this? Well, a student may have done all the “right” things – excelled academically, earned a killer ACT/SAT score and done all the other intangibles to earn admission to the nation’s most selective schools. But that doesn’t mean they should go there. The simple truth is if a student isn’t happy, they won’t be successful, no matter where they go. And getting into and attending Harvard isn’t a guaranteed path to anything if you can’t make the grade.
The same is true in this year’s World Cup. France, one of the most successful soccer nations of the last 20 years is out after the first round, winless in 3 matches. This is a team with some of the most talented players on the planet, yet they couldn’t even muster a win over host South Africa, one of the lowest ranked teams in the tournament. Why? The players were miserable. Infighting, instability and a lack of singular focus led to an early exit.
What’s the point? If you choose a college purely on reputation, you may be setting yourself up for failure. There is so much more that goes into the decision including who you are going to class with, what happens outside of class and frankly, the intangible “gut” feeling. Selecting a college where you will be happy and engaged in a community that will work with you to help you succeed is a whole lot better than choosing the one an arbitrary ranking system selected for you. You are a human being, full of potential and frailty. Why choose a school based solely on the numbers?
Oh, and GO USA!
Musings about Higher Education and Admissions from the Vice President for Enrollment at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Introductory Post
Welcome to the Dean Dean blog. Why this blog as opposed to others? Well, if you or someone close to you is interested in Dean College, then you will probably find some interesting insight into our community and admissions process here. If you are interested in enrollment related issues with regards to colleges and universities, you'll find some of my opinions on current trends here as well. Ultimately, what you'll get is honest opinions from someone who has been in the profession for over 15 years.
It has been a remarkable first year here at Dean College. We have seen record applications and are on the verge of record enrollment. The campus is going through many changes, from our new Main Stage and Dining Center wing on our Campus Center to the unveiling of 3 new baccalaureate degrees in Liberal Arts & Studies, Business and Theatre. The staff in the Office of Admission has come together as a great team and works tirelessly on behalf of the students who choose to apply to Dean. All in all, 2009-2010 has been great, but we expect 2010-2011 to be even better!
What is in store for the future? Well, we just launched our new VIRTUAL TOUR and, in less than a month, will launch a new admissions website. By the end of the summer, www.dean.edu will get a full facelift as well to make it more navigable and serviceable for prospective families and the community.
I hope you will enjoy keeping up with Dean College through this blog. Please feel free to comment freely, ask questions, and share ideas here as you wish. I hope my musings will be useful, if not entertaining!
It has been a remarkable first year here at Dean College. We have seen record applications and are on the verge of record enrollment. The campus is going through many changes, from our new Main Stage and Dining Center wing on our Campus Center to the unveiling of 3 new baccalaureate degrees in Liberal Arts & Studies, Business and Theatre. The staff in the Office of Admission has come together as a great team and works tirelessly on behalf of the students who choose to apply to Dean. All in all, 2009-2010 has been great, but we expect 2010-2011 to be even better!
What is in store for the future? Well, we just launched our new VIRTUAL TOUR and, in less than a month, will launch a new admissions website. By the end of the summer, www.dean.edu will get a full facelift as well to make it more navigable and serviceable for prospective families and the community.
I hope you will enjoy keeping up with Dean College through this blog. Please feel free to comment freely, ask questions, and share ideas here as you wish. I hope my musings will be useful, if not entertaining!
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