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How It Happens

Admission activities define the four seasons.

Fall

Traveling season

Admission officers:

  • Travel 417 days to 33 states and 10 countries.
  • Visit 522 high schools, connect with 2,500 students.
  • Attend 135 college fairs, offer information to 4,100 students.
  • Conduct 432 interviews across the nation and around the globe.
  • Travel with colleges featured in Loren Pope’s book “Colleges That Change Lives” and with two groups: one with Colorado, Oberlin and Occidental colleges; another with Lewis & Clark and Reed colleges, Willamette University and University of Puget Sound.
  • Admission support staff members process applications, enter data, and provide the backbone to schedule and confirm visits and coordinate follow-up with prospective students.
  • At Fall Visitors’ Days, faculty, staff and current students talk to prospective students about the curriculum, research, experiential learning, popular majors, off-campus studies and athletics.

Winter

Reading season

  • Begins with Early-Decision I deadline in November.
  • Continues into January with Early-Decision II and regular decision deadlines. Roughly 25 percent of the final class of 400 will be admitted now through the Early-Decision process.
  • More than 4,000 students submit their application pieces by mid-January.
  • Admission support staff members record, compile, audit and prepare application credentials.
  • In a 10-week period, admission officers read 70 applications a week. Each application is read at least two times.
  • Work begins on the class of high school juniors and sophomores as about 100,000 students receive their first mailing from Whitman as part of the student search process.

Spring

Evaluating season

  • Over spring break, admission officers huddle for two solid weeks to review applications again and narrow the pool to the 1,500 students who will be offered admission.
  • Financial aid staff members crunch numbers so in mid-March they are ready to create financial-aid packages for the admitted students.
  • Admission support staff members prepare the admitted student packets and mailings.
  • It’s a marathon to April 1, when students will be notified, and a sprint to May 1, when about 400 students accept their offers to attend Whitman.
  • During April, more than 750 students and their families will visit campus as they make their final decision.
  • Admission support staff members process the 15,000 respondents to Whitman’s student search efforts, part of the eventual 32,000 inquirers for the next class.

Summer

Planning season

  • Admission officers e-mail and call students who plan to attend in the fall. It’s not over until they show up for classes.
  • Penrose House visitor board lists student and family visitors from around the country and the globe.
  • Admission officers begin and/or continue their communications with high school sophomores and juniors.
  • The admission staff evaluates the previous year’s activities, makes adjustments and improvements, and plans for the coming year.
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