This great spring morning in Vermont (wet snow mixed with sleet) is a normal early April morning. This is OK. We will binge on summer.
So let's start early! Graduate Programs are registering students for summer classes. For those college campus traditionalists, I would love to convince you that summer is the best time to be on a college campus, especially Saint Mike's!
We have more international students here in summer than in the rest of the year*, the grounds look like they could be on the local garden tour, and...(drum roll)...the weather is great! *last year I heard three different languages spoken during a two-minute walk between St. Ed's and Alliot Hall.
Not to mention that you could be in Guinness's World Record Book if you did everything offered during the summer in Burlington, VT. Like I said, we binge on summer.
So--especially if you have the misfortune of living in some sweltering summer locale--check us out. Take a class this summer at Saint Mike's! You'll love it! www.smcvt.edu/graduate/courses
Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Blogs and cookies
Next week is not only the Graduate Programs Open House (4:30pm, Tues, the 22nd), but marks an entire year I have been blogging (trying to blog is more honest---it's like I just announced I've been dieting for a year because I remember eating grapefruit most mornings). But blogging hasn't been my forte, even though I'm a writer, because I attack each post like Hemingway (make each word count!). I have to remember that for all Hemingway was, he would not have made a blogger.
Therefore, I will try to continue to blog, but no literary musings.
So, our Graduate Open House is coming up Tuesday, March 22, at 4:30pm at the Hoehl (pronouced "hale") Center. I coordinate three of these per year (one each term) and arrange it according to the academic advisors' and program directors' schedules. Then I invite people, advertise, and order cookies.
It's a time for those interested in SMC to put down the nice brochures and go straight to asking "What do I have to take?" "Why?'' "What will I be doing in the field?" "What's the job market like?", etc., to the "real" people: the professors/advisors/directors--they're all there (I make them come or they can't have any of the cookies).
It's casual (walk-in) although I do talk about the programs, admission, and the history of the College for about ten minutes right at the beginning. We started giving tours of the campus only in the past year when I could get a graduate assistant to assist. We don't get many takers on the tour only because most visitors know the campus.
So please come! Even if it's just for the cookies.
Therefore, I will try to continue to blog, but no literary musings.
So, our Graduate Open House is coming up Tuesday, March 22, at 4:30pm at the Hoehl (pronouced "hale") Center. I coordinate three of these per year (one each term) and arrange it according to the academic advisors' and program directors' schedules. Then I invite people, advertise, and order cookies.
It's a time for those interested in SMC to put down the nice brochures and go straight to asking "What do I have to take?" "Why?'' "What will I be doing in the field?" "What's the job market like?", etc., to the "real" people: the professors/advisors/directors--they're all there (I make them come or they can't have any of the cookies).
It's casual (walk-in) although I do talk about the programs, admission, and the history of the College for about ten minutes right at the beginning. We started giving tours of the campus only in the past year when I could get a graduate assistant to assist. We don't get many takers on the tour only because most visitors know the campus.
So please come! Even if it's just for the cookies.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'
Ever see the FAQ's on a web site? Someone mentioned that they have become dismissed because "everyone knows those are not the questions people ask, but the answers admission people like to give! " There's one answer I wish I didn't have to give.
The question I truly do get most often is: what is your deadline. I love deadlines, so I squirm as much as the receiver does when I answer: Well, we do and we don't. (Who doesn't hate that answer?) I think to myself: Pick a date, any date! Saying a date is so much quicker than having to explain, painfully pleasantly, that we have a "rolling admission" policy and what that means. I have playfully imagined I am giving out any date that comes to the top of my head at that moment, but it's just too sinister.
A rolling admission accepts applications on an ongoing basis--never has a deadline; but, classes--what the program is comprised of--do have beginnings and endings--so the term in which you are admitted to a program and the term when you begin taking classes in that program aren't always the same. This is OK until a VP asks for an enrollment number and you have to say, Admission count? Enrollment count? This term? Last term? All three terms? (There are at least eight scenarios for graduate admission for any one term.) And their eyes look vacant and they run to the Registrar's Office.
Metaphorically, a rolling admission fills your class like water into a glass. When the glass is full, you turn off the tap. If you are thirsty, you might have another glass, so you fill up the next glass. But if you are not that thirsty, the water in the tap has to wait until you decide to turn on the tap again which could be....? Or if you go to the tap and only a trickle comes out...you wait, and wait, until there is a reasonable amount in the glass to drink, which could be...?
The benefit to the applicant is that--assuming you are an appropriate candidate for admission--you will get in eventually. So, you don't need to stock up on anxiety pills from the drug store before applying for admission--leave some for me.
The question I truly do get most often is: what is your deadline. I love deadlines, so I squirm as much as the receiver does when I answer: Well, we do and we don't. (Who doesn't hate that answer?) I think to myself: Pick a date, any date! Saying a date is so much quicker than having to explain, painfully pleasantly, that we have a "rolling admission" policy and what that means. I have playfully imagined I am giving out any date that comes to the top of my head at that moment, but it's just too sinister.
A rolling admission accepts applications on an ongoing basis--never has a deadline; but, classes--what the program is comprised of--do have beginnings and endings--so the term in which you are admitted to a program and the term when you begin taking classes in that program aren't always the same. This is OK until a VP asks for an enrollment number and you have to say, Admission count? Enrollment count? This term? Last term? All three terms? (There are at least eight scenarios for graduate admission for any one term.) And their eyes look vacant and they run to the Registrar's Office.
Metaphorically, a rolling admission fills your class like water into a glass. When the glass is full, you turn off the tap. If you are thirsty, you might have another glass, so you fill up the next glass. But if you are not that thirsty, the water in the tap has to wait until you decide to turn on the tap again which could be....? Or if you go to the tap and only a trickle comes out...you wait, and wait, until there is a reasonable amount in the glass to drink, which could be...?
The benefit to the applicant is that--assuming you are an appropriate candidate for admission--you will get in eventually. So, you don't need to stock up on anxiety pills from the drug store before applying for admission--leave some for me.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away
I was just reading a blog by a friend who talked about how time gets away from us. As I sit here and nurse a cold that was given to me along with other--nicer--gifts on Christmas, I listen to the radio ("Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away"...) and wait for the time that was the year 2010 to end.
Take stock. What did I (you) do with the time given to us in 2010? Whereas my boss would revel in the "yardage gained" (can you tell what sport he played in college?), I hate looking back, no matter what strides were made.
Maybe that's because I forgot to put rear-view mirrors on my life. I was once teased that I was so impatient for the next day of life, I might as well wish I was dead. Another way to say I didn't enjoy the living part.
I see so many people anxious to get done their master's programs "as quickly as possible" or, like me, jam the calendar with as many objectives as possible, and..poof...2011 will be gone soon too. Ain't it funny....?
Need to enjoy the living part. Yes. A great New Year's resolution.
Think I'll start tomorrow; I still have three more items to cross off before midnight.
Take stock. What did I (you) do with the time given to us in 2010? Whereas my boss would revel in the "yardage gained" (can you tell what sport he played in college?), I hate looking back, no matter what strides were made.
Maybe that's because I forgot to put rear-view mirrors on my life. I was once teased that I was so impatient for the next day of life, I might as well wish I was dead. Another way to say I didn't enjoy the living part.
I see so many people anxious to get done their master's programs "as quickly as possible" or, like me, jam the calendar with as many objectives as possible, and..poof...2011 will be gone soon too. Ain't it funny....?
Need to enjoy the living part. Yes. A great New Year's resolution.
Think I'll start tomorrow; I still have three more items to cross off before midnight.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Gemini Factor
I'm a Gemini. However, I'm not usually one to discuss it. Geminis are a secret band of June-ish born people who don't have secret handshakes--they have secret glances (that is, once "I'm a Gemini" is revealed). They know therein lies a twin, an alter ego, a hidden persona; the part of the boring person in front of them that makes them intriguing and, well, kinda cool.
However, those who fall under--yawn--other astrological signs, need not worry. There is a Gemini factor in most of us.
In order to know if you have this factor, however, your hidden "twin" has to be slightly better than the overt sister (or brother). The competition can get fierce, but the hidden twin--once revealed--has to elicit gasps, or at least wide eyes and a "Really?" or you don't have the Gemini factor. You just have a nice hobby.
Examples: A friend of mine, mother of two, works full-time--just saw a photo of her atop a mountain in Nepal with some sherpas. Wooo. Gemini factor. Co-worker mom--she's a stand-up comic (like really, guys. She's definitely deserving of the secret glance).
You get the idea. Now if you just read this and are convinced you have no greater-than-me twin, I haven't put you in the Bluebird Group just yet. There's still time. Remember in, like, fifth grade when you said, "I want to be..."? Well, that's your starting point. If you don't remember what you said to that question when you were young, well, enjoy your hobby.
However, I do believe there is a hidden twin in all of us! As much as I'd like to add "What SIGN are you?" to the questions on the Graduate Application (I mean, how would I interpret an answer like "For Unloading Only"?), I'll still be curious to know if you have the Gemini factor. Watch for the glance!
However, those who fall under--yawn--other astrological signs, need not worry. There is a Gemini factor in most of us.
In order to know if you have this factor, however, your hidden "twin" has to be slightly better than the overt sister (or brother). The competition can get fierce, but the hidden twin--once revealed--has to elicit gasps, or at least wide eyes and a "Really?" or you don't have the Gemini factor. You just have a nice hobby.
Examples: A friend of mine, mother of two, works full-time--just saw a photo of her atop a mountain in Nepal with some sherpas. Wooo. Gemini factor. Co-worker mom--she's a stand-up comic (like really, guys. She's definitely deserving of the secret glance).
You get the idea. Now if you just read this and are convinced you have no greater-than-me twin, I haven't put you in the Bluebird Group just yet. There's still time. Remember in, like, fifth grade when you said, "I want to be..."? Well, that's your starting point. If you don't remember what you said to that question when you were young, well, enjoy your hobby.
However, I do believe there is a hidden twin in all of us! As much as I'd like to add "What SIGN are you?" to the questions on the Graduate Application (I mean, how would I interpret an answer like "For Unloading Only"?), I'll still be curious to know if you have the Gemini factor. Watch for the glance!
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