Callouses
Admit It! This blog title is probably not overly appealing on its face but I think it’s a good reflection of where my colleagues and I are at the moment (at least those of us who write with our pens pressed firmly against our thumbs). On my thumb is a rather tangible and painful reminder that it’s reading season; the time of year when admission officers go into a virtual hibernation surrounded by application files, caffeine and pens as far as the eye can see.
Two months, 20 ball-point pens and two delicate, womanly-looking hands ago, reading season commenced. It starts out slow with Early Decision and then crescendos into January and February when my colleagues and I manage to be physically and mentally drained yet also palpably excited about our work simultaneously. Our fingers are calloused from writing and cut from various upturned papers, our shoulders have permanent indentations from our Land’s End file bags (our bosses give each one of us a gigantic Lands End canvas bag with our monogram when we start our work in the offices) which hold hundreds of files and weigh 20-25 pounds. Our backs have a distinct hunchback-like bend to them from leaning over desks/dining room tables/lap-desks. Some of us rise before the sun and read like fiends each morning while others of us sleep until the afternoon and read until the wee hours of the morning (I’m not sure if these blogs are time stamped but in case they’re not, I’m the latter). Whenever we have a spare five minutes we pick up a file and read, read, read.
No doubt it sounds exhausting. And it is. But it’s also enthralling. We are working together to build W&M’s 319th class; a group of 1450 accomplished, smart, talented, diverse students that will become part of the fabric that completes the nation’s second oldest college. We get absolutely giddy over our applicants’ amazing accomplishments, their many talents, their successes, their failures and their humor. We often text each other at some un-Godly hour to mention a great essay we read or to share the stats of yet another wicked smart applicant. We share essays, optional submissions and a lot of anticipation with each other. And we have all of you to thank for that.
So callouses, paper cuts and back pain be damned. We will keep reading, our excitement level will sustain itself and we will continue to enjoy all that you have shared with us until the Class of 2016 is formed. And just in case we’ll keep some Advil, Band Aids and an extra cup of coffee close by.
Wendy Livingston ’03, M.Ed. ‘09
Senior Assistant Dean of Admission
Comments are closed on posts older than one year, but we still want to hear from you. If you have a comment or question for us, please email admission@wm.edu.
Dear Mrs. Livingston and other Admission Faculty,
Thank you for your hard work and dedication to getting the applications read! I am very excited to hear my regular decision in early April! It would mean the world to be one of the 1450 in the 319th class at the College of William and Mary! Again, thank you for all your dedication! Best of luck!
Perspective Candidate of the Class of 2016,
Drew
Thanks Drew. We do really enjoy all of the work that goes into selecting the class. Best of luck to you.
Hi! I’m sorry if this has been asked before, but since I still haven’t received an e-mail, do you have an estimate of when all the applications will have been processed? Sorry to bother you; thanks so much for you help and for this blog!
I just wanted to say, I’ve been following this blog regularly throughout my hectic first semester of senior year…and it’s probably one of the only things that kept me sane. Thanks so much for always providing much-needed information and witty insight into the mysterious admissions process, it really helps panicky seniors like myself. :’) But! Now I’m done and it’s your turn to do the work. 😉 Good luck with reading applications, hope your class of 2016 will be amazing!
Beth, we still have about 1,000 applications still in cyber limbo that we’re working to process and those 1,000 students haven’t received any email yet. We hope, although we cannot promise, that all of those cases will be resolved this week. Once they have, we’ll post information on this blog and our social media sites.
Thank you so much for doing this blog. It has really helped me through my deferral from ED. I was just wondering…do you have the stats on how many RD applicants you had this year? More or less than previous? Thanks.
Lauren, we don’t have a final tally on the totally number of apps yet but we are up from last year. the W&M News published an article just a few days ago on this year’s pool (http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2012/a-record-year-for-william–mary-undergraduate-applications123.php)
Losa, so glad the blog has kept you sane (in some ways it keeps me sane and everyone wants a sane admission officer right?). Best of luck to you!
Thank you for giving up your delicate, womanly hands for us! The sacrifice does not go unappreciated! Good luck to all the applicants, and I’m eagerly awaiting some more hilights from the application essays, those are the best 😀 Go Tribe!
Alexis, it’s our pleasure. Callouses heal and manicures at the end of reading season can do a lot. But building a class is forever. Good luck!
Thank you so much admission staff for your hard work!
Should I be worried if I haven’t received an email saying all my application materials are in, or is the process still ongoing?
Kelsey, did you receive an initial email saying we received your application? If so that’s what matters. We’re still working to complete nearly 2000 applications. As long as you got the first email noting we have your application that’s what’s most important. We’ll work with you after that point to get your app completed. We will email you if we don’t have a required component with instructions as to how to submit whatever is missing.
I received my completion email this morning actually, but thank you for your quick response! 🙂
Serendipity at work Kelsey!