How Selecting a Class is Like Free Agency

AND 
To many, including myself, these two images do not go together. Brady Quinn was supposed to be the future of Cleveland football and the Broncos are second only to the Ravens in the enemies of my beloved Browns.  But as I made a distressed phone call to my father (the root of my fandom) on Sunday night when the Browns traded Brady Quinn after signing Jake Delhomme of all QBs, I kept saying that we simply have to trust that Mike Holmgren (the Browns new President) knows what he’s doing.  The following day, as I was discussing the distressing trade with my boss, Dean Henry Broaddus, we both realized that admission in many ways is like crafting a football team.  Henry compared selecting a class to the NFL draft, while I compared it to free agency.

During free agency, players are in search of bigger and better deals while coaches are in search of the best players for their systems.  In this analogy the players are prospective students searching for the best schools and the best financial aid packages and the coaches are the admission deans who are looking to bring the best of the best into their communities.

And, while I continue to question the Browns latest free agency deal/trade, I also realize that I am not a football coach, GM, president, or even a scout.  I have a very narrow view of my own team and my own hopes and dreams for said team.  What I lack is a more refined sense of the entire playing field, the entire pool of players, and the plans for the Browns’ future.  I realized that in this way, I’m not much different from prospective students and parents who will shortly learn the fate of their application to W&M.  Prospective students and families know only their merits and accomplishments but they are not privy to viewing the merits and accomplishments of all 12,000 applicants.  So while I think the Browns trading Quinn makes no sense I’m likely not the best person to sit in judgment simply because I lack a more broad perspective on the NFL in general.  Likewise, students and parents who see small envelopes arrive in the mailbox will likely question our decision.  But as I must trust that Mike Holmgren knows what he’s doing, our applicants must trust that we know what we’re doing.  We have the skill set, the training, and the broad perspective with which to observe the entire “playing field” and select those applicants who are best for our “system”.

In football some trades are hailed as brilliant moves while others are hailed as duds.  Some trades bring a team to the next level and others keep it stuck in mediocrity.  In admission, we know that not everyone we admit will enroll and we know that the decisions we are making are nuanced and difficult and that we might not always get them right.  But we have seen the entire pool…twice (every application at W&M is read at least twice).  We have an in-depth understanding of the entire “playing field” and we have a lot of information to assist us with deciding who gets to be part of our “system” or community.  So as I cross my fingers, put my faith in Mike Holmgren, and hope for the future, so too must our applicants and their families.

– Wendy Livingston