College Admissions. Just reading those words probably made your stomach drop a bit. When I was in high school, college admissions counselors seemed like a king with his council sitting around a table inside a far-off castle. I am there from my small village asking if I grew sufficient crops, even though I just saw the farmer from the larger village waltz in with twice as many crops. Whether you’ve freshly survived the college admissions process, or currently battling it: it is intimidating for everyone. Samantha Armstrong is a former admissions counselor at Franklin and Marshall and currently still works for the Admissions Office. I sat down with her in February to ask the burning questions possessed by every student who has been confronted by the bright blue and white of the Common App screen. From F&M’s view on standardized tests to the effect of “legacy” in admissions, Ms. Armstrong details the admissions process at F&M.
CW: What is the first thing that happens when an application is submitted to F&M?
SA: When an application is submitted to F&M, typically we make sure all required information is there. Their letters of recommendation, a transcript, the FAFSA/CSS Profile if they are requesting financial aid, etc. If they’re missing that we can’t read their application.
CW: How important are SAT/ACT Scores at a test-optional school like F&M? What does admissions think about the unfairness of standardized testing?
SA: I always found this interesting because I feel every school has different rules. We have been test-optional for a while. Test scores were one of the last things I looked at. It can help if a student is on the cusp (admittance/waitlist). If a student has a low test score we would even reach out to them and recommend that they go test-optional.
CW: How does a legacy student’s application compare to a student who is not legacy?
SA: We do have a flag that shows us that a student is a legacy. It could be a brother, uncle, or someone that is related. We do not look at them as we have to admit them. If a student has a sibling that is currently enrolled, it could be really hard to not admit them; however, if they do not have the academics to get here, we can’t enroll them. Legacy makes us more aware of the student, but it does not make that big of a difference.
CW: Do donations from legacy families influence a student’s admission into the school? What about donations from families that are not legacy?
SA: If it was a child of someone on the Board of Trustees and that member donated $1,000,000 it would be in bad taste to not accept the student of someone who has done a lot for the school. Somebody cannot just come to F&M on a tour and then donate, that’s bribery. If someone had a strong relation to the college, or if someone like Governor Shapiro’s son were to look at F&M, we would give that student a little more attention. That is across the board for all schools.
CW: What does admissions do outside of application cycles?
SA: We do a lot to make sure we’re interacting with prospective students. As much as we’re concerned about reading applications, the majority of what admissions does is engaging with students. It is really important for us to ensure we’re available to students so they can ask us questions and get them to a good place for them to decide if they want to be here for four years or not. Yielding, or the percentage of accepted students that decade to enroll, is a popular term among admissions. It’s important because so many people are applying to so many colleges. We want to get the best and the brightest at F&M.
CW: How does admissions work with the athletics departments for early commits? What are the parameters for athletes and are they different from other applicants?
SA: It depends. We do have a close-knit relationship with athletics. The good thing about athletics is that these students hear about F&M early. Our athletic teams are trying to get the best athletes. There is a pre-read process which means the athlete submits the transcripts and one of our admissions counselors, designated as the sports liaison, looks over their application to see how they’re doing so far in high school. They assess if they would be likely or not likely to be accepted and the coaches rate the students by how much they want them on the team. We take all this into consideration, it can give them a bump depending on how the coach ranks them, but if they don’t have the grades they need they are not admissible. Admissions counselors have the final say. There have been times when a coach really wants a student and admissions have denied that student. If we think they can handle the rigor, then we know they’ll do well.
CW: How does admissions recruit international students and what is that process like?
SA: We have two international counselors. They go out and visit different countries for 6-8 weeks and meet prospective students to get F&M’s name out there. F&M’s brand is very well known. We have one of the highest numbers of international students of any bacculaurete college.
CW: How has college admissions changed since you have been here or since you were applying for college? Is there anything you wish did not change, or anything you want to change now?
SA: The number of schools people have applied to has greatly increased. I think prospective students are seeing admittance percentages decrease and panic by applying to 20+ schools. Our admittance rate will continue to go down because we cannot accept all those people but it gives an impression that they cannot get into the school. However, a student who gets into F&M is likely to get into other top colleges. That is why it’s so important to have a good yield because students have so many schools to choose from. So, we try our best to admit the students from that pool who really want to come here. If we have 10,000 applications, but only half of those are actually interested, part of our job is making sure we find students that feasibly want to come here too.
CW: What are some of the best college essays you have read?
SA: I remember one that was so fun and it was an analogy of them talking about how they are the glue that sticks things together. Some people are the floorboards, the strength of the group. But they were just the glue that holds things together.
CW: What is your favorite F&M fact, and your favorite part about your job?
SA: My favorite part of my job is working with our tour guides and student workers. I love that part of my job! My favorite F&M fact is that if you go right across that one road you’re in the park, I think that’s so fun. Common Hour is so cool! I was here when they brought in Jane Goodall and I got to meet her which was super cool.
Sophomore Catherine Welch is an investigative reporter. Her email is cwelch@fandm.edu.