What’s Behind Your GPA
The first thing the juniors did during their retreat was a warm up game involving GPAs and application details. In this game, eight students randomly selected a GPA with facts about someone on the back. Then another student read off a list of facts and told the students to move up or down in the line depending on what their sheet said. The whole purpose of this game was to show the juniors how schools with a holistic approach look and view college applications.
Quick Run Down
Once the junior class split into three groups, they were all given three individual college applications. They then had to read all of them and discuss with their table about which person they wanted to accept, waitlist and deny. After about 30 minutes of talking and arguing, each table came up with their top candidate and were ready to explain why to the rest of the room. While students were arguing and debating, many people’s minds were changed and each big group finally came up with their list.
Pre-Read
When the juniors first got the applications, they were overwhelmed with the amount of information that was being provided to them. Many groups decided that they would split up and some would work on reading one person’s application and some would read the other. Some groups decided to focus more on just the grades and essays, however, others really tried to embrace the holistic approach and looked at the person as a whole. While reading, some people also took notes about each person so that when it came to ranking them, they knew who would be the best fit.
Decision Time
The final step of reading the applications was to decide on who they were going to accept, waitlist and deny. When evaluating each student, they look for who they think will excel in the school’s program and make a difference. Even though all three of the students applied to the same school and program, some of them did not have the same majors as what the school offered, which was an easy way to cross them off their list and deny them. However, when it came down to the last two students, many groups were divided and could not decide who they wanted to accept and who they wanted to waitlist.
What Do You Want To Know
While students were inspecting the college resumes, Assistant Vice President of Admissions at Florida Institute of Technology, Mark Fox walked around checking on everyone and making sure they did not have any questions. When someone asked a really good question, Fox would announce it to the whole room making sure no one else was confused. Throughout the whole process Fox was helping students narrow down their choices and asking them questions about why they choose who they chose.
Tiny Details
Once each small group chose who they were going to accept, waitlist and deny, Fox had everyone discuss their choices. Each group took turns explaining and defending who they picked and pointed out certain things about each person that the juniors did not notice. At the end of this exercise, all of the juniors knew what a holistic approach was and how beneficial it can be in the application process.
College Admission Secrets
The Executive Director of Admissions at Florida Institute of Technology, Mike Perry, came to speak to the junior class about the college admissions process during the junior retreat. Throughout the day, he helped explain how the admissions office reviews applications and even what type of things stand out to them. Perry also ended the day with a Q&A for all of the juniors and teachers to ask anything they thought of during the day. By the end of that, the whole class had a much better understanding of what college admissions looks for in applications and what it means when a school says they have a holistic approach.
Majority Wins
Close to the end of the retreat, the whole junior class gathered together in Langford Hall. There, Fox and Perry started an open discussion with the grade about the applicants and who they chose. After talking about each one, they asked every student to raise their hand based on who they chose as the accepted student. As people were voting, their friends would try and change their mind hoping to get a few more people on board to vote for a different person.
Who Has The Best Explanation
The student leaders of the junior retreat led the class in a large discussion about each candidate. Beginning with Parker Lambert and Bella Ekk, they explained why group one chose one of the applicants and then trashed the other two hoping to persuade anyone in the audience. Will O’Connor and Mary Clayton Soto then talked about the people that they chose and why. To wrap it all you Venkat Maddipoti and Sophia Krizner had the last opportunity to explain who they chose, which upset the audience and caused a lot of side conversations.
Group Discussion
While the juniors were hard at working reading through the files they also needed to work together and combine their discoveries. Many groups missed a lot of important information that the college recruiters have been trained to look for in order to help them categorize their applicants. When looking through the applications, students read many personal stories about the applicants, and it was their job to try and dig deep into their essays and see how original they are.
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