The Risks and Rewards of Senior Admissions Readers
Written by Associate Head for Communications, Enrollment, and Planning Pam Safford
“Really? You really use seniors—teenagers!—to help read prospective student applications?”
I frequently hear the question, and I always smile and nod, proud at just how amazing—and important—this is for Concord Academy. When my colleagues from other schools, upon hearing my explanation, conclude that they, too, might want to use seniors in their process, I caution them, trying not to sound smug, but knowing that as unique as this approach is, so too are our students.
Inviting senior students to apply for a limited number of Admissions Committee positions every fall is not for everyone. First, it’s the elements of CA’s mission—“love of learning,” “common trust,” and “every individual counts”—that ensure positive effect. More specifically, because students—to a person—value learning as well as student-teacher relationships, we know they will all be looking for those same qualities in applicants. We are confident that senior readers will review applications with the trust and respect so valued at CA, including when they are managing confidential information.
Second, this commitment takes significant time—for the adults conducting the training and working side by side with these terrific students, and for the students who must commit approximately ten hours a week for five weeks (even more hours as those last committee meetings run into the late evening). Senior readers devote themselves to the careful reading of applications as well as to long, thoughtful committee meetings in which we present and discuss every student who has applied.
Finally, this position does not elicit public praise or higher status in our community (and it happens too late to offer any real help with college applications). The process requires confidentiality at every turn, so any discussion about prospective students happens only within the walls of Belknap (the Admissions office).
The risks of this approach? You can only imagine: lost files, careless interpretations of credentials, breaches of security, the coordination of dozens of different schedules, failing to arrive at the “right” decisions . . . But none of this has ever happened!
The opportunities? Enormous. The seniors working shoulder to shoulder with CA adults offer just the quality and care that we would expect from our professional Admissions personnel. They are responsible, timely, careful, and accurate. They are insightful, honest, and compassionately critical. They are mature, respectful, and enormously responsible. They are careful observers: they see accomplishment as well as potential, and they see hope. They, along with the rest of the Admissions team, help us ferret out who, among the many incredible applicants, will thrive at CA.
We are a better school for having the privilege of working with these seniors year after year.
