By John Raftrey And Lori McCormick
E-mail John Raftrey And Lori McCormick
About this blog: We are writing this blog to give practical advice to students and parents, to reflect on issues affecting college admissions, and to provide a platform for a robust community discussion on post-secondary choices. We occasionally f...
(More)About this blog: We are writing this blog to give practical advice to students and parents, to reflect on issues affecting college admissions, and to provide a platform for a robust community discussion on post-secondary choices. We occasionally feature "guest? bloggers and invite other college counselors to join the blog team. We are members of the Higher Education Consultants Association (HECA) and the Western Association for College Admissions Counseling (WACAC).
Lori McCormick: I began my college advising career in 2006 at Notre Dame de Namur in Transfer Admissions. Since then, I have worked at San Jose State in the Career Center, for a local independent college advising firm, and for BUILD a college access program for underrepresented youth. I graduated with a BA in Sociology from UCSB and a MA in Psychology with a concentration in Career Counseling from Antioch University. I am an active volunteer with The Parent?s Club of the Peninsula (PAMP), the Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC) and I am a seasonal application reader for the
Maisin Scholar Award. I reside in Palo Alto with my husband and two sons.
John Raftrey: I have been advising students for the last three admission cycles. I regularly attend conferences, tour colleges, and keep up with the changing landscape of college admissions. I'll share what I learn and throw in a few opinions along the way. I moved to Palo Alto in 1991. My three sons are all veterans of PAUSD and graduated from Paly. I graduated from the University of Michigan, earned an MBA at Columbia University and hold a certificate in College Counseling from UC San Diego. In my past life I worked in TV news and high tech marketing.
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(written by John Raftrey)
Today the Common App and the UC App went live. It reminds me of when pitchers and catchers report to spring training. It means the spring training season is getting started, but not for all the players.
I think that applies here. There is no reason to rush to fill out the applications. They are both basically latest revs of software apps. We all know what happens when software first goes live. They will have ambiguous directions. They will have some odd technical glitches. So let someone else find the issues and figure out a work-around.
College counselors love to dissect the applications first and I'm sure a few of my colleagues will have advice on how the applications differ from last year and where the bugs are. So I'm going to let them play the role of the quality assurance team and learn what they have to say in a few days. I'll report back with a review of this year's applications.
In the meantime, please make sure you have a normal sounding email account. surferdude@gmail.com should be retired. Admission officers really pay attention to that detail in particular.
I'll be back next week with more on the apps. In the meantime, get cracking on those essays!
