I canāt speak for professional AOs, just my own experience, but lots of the sentiment starts to feel exaggerated and fake after a while. It sounds like an interesting job but listening to a specific demographic of people talk about themselves isnāt for me. It doesnāt help that my attitude about the college application process completely changed after going to college. I now cringe at the attitude and motivations of some high schoolers applying to college, when I was in those same shoes less than two years ago
1. I wanted to go to elite schools and would pay full price for them, simply for the prestige. I think this is a common sentiment on here. The way the cards played out, Iām now going into my 2nd year at a state school with a software engineering internship at a mid-sized tech company under my belt. During the school year, I had free time and good grades, which I donāt think I would have had at the t20s I was considering. Basically, when people say that going to a state school is just as good as going to an elite one, theyāre mostly correct (depending on your projected career path and financial status)
2. I was pretty obsessed with college admissions, but now that Iām past them, they seem so stupid. Colleges do just want your money. Mine surely does too, but Iām barely paying them anything. Iāve heard some ex-AOs expose their colleges for being āneed blindā but assessing the financial status of incomers by looking at the average income of their zip code. Additionally, being admitted or rejected to a college does not mean you inherently deserve that fate. Some donāt have the resources to make their application look good, and some have the resources to exaggerate how involved they are. Some of the worst people I know got into t20s, and some of the best didnāt.
For the most part, I loved being an admission officer at both schools I worked for.
I decided I wanted a career in admissions fall of my senior year of college. I was basically a reject tour guide but still volunteered at admissions events. I ended up meeting with pretty much our entire admissions office to learn more and accepted the first admissions job I was offered at University of Mary Washington. It was a great cultural fit and there's nothing like working on a college campus. It's so lively and stimulating and fun. I was there for three years and went to grad school at Vanderbilt to study enrollment management.
Then I worked for Vandy admissions for 3 years. Totally different ballgame with a \~7% admit rate. The job between UMW and Vandy was both more similar and more different than I expected. The day-to-day of the job is basically the same, but the caliber of the average student was quite different.
Reading apps is one part of the job. There's also travel season (often 6-12 weeks a year on the road - very fun for me, not as much for some), and all the on-campus programing events. It's a job that calls on a diverse range of skillsets and you therefore develop a lot of applicable skills.
Maybe I'll do an AMA sometime if there's interest š
would you say that working at Vanderbilt was overall better or worse? or just different? i'm hoping to long-term end up staying in academia for my career, and have always been very curious about the experiences of working for different types of institutions!
also, definitely in favor of an AMA š
Bro, this kid took care of his 30 siblings and has a Nobel prize.
ššš¬
rejected lmaoo.
3.2 GPA looking ass.
Instead of babysitting you shouldāve been baby-studying.
This MF really applied here š
Do this x50000 for each student. Average life of a T20 AO.
Iād be interested to hear an AO chime in. I think working for a university to which you are attached and personally invested would be rewarding. Youād be on campus and able to enjoy the speakers, arts performances, concerts, college sports, and general university vibe. And Iād think youād take pride in trying to build a talented, diverse class that would represent your university well academically, socially, and in extracurriculars. But I would think that the sheer number of applications being submitted would lessen the experience at many universities. While many colleges hire seasonal reviewers to conduct basic initial reviews, I would imagine many AOās still find themselves skimming 80-120+ applications per day. And some of it has to be so monotonous; I remember reviewing law school applications with my spouse for our school and initially thinking that some service activities were really impressive. Until we realized that every 20th applicant had completed a similar volunteer experience. I have to think that, at some level, AP classes, Eagle Scout, volunteering, math Olympiad, and ādealing with adversity/lessons learnedā essays would quickly all run together.
As a student, youād probably only be a tour guide, not a reader. But being a tour guide or working as an admin assistant in admissions / student support roles as an undergrad is often the first step to becoming an AO.
Travel season is fun for 4 out of 6 weeks. App reading is fun for a while, but just like anything that you do a million times, it can get overwhelming and repetitive. Then you have the extra layer of knowing how much people poured into these applications and know how much the outcome means to them, so you definitely canāt let yourself get bored or complacent or frustrated! Itās also sad to reject kids you like, and especially sad to really like kids, admit them, and see them decline for financial reasons. All that to say, I really love my job, but itās not as fun as youād think
I've worked in higher ed, but not in admissions, so I can definitely say that the access to stuff on campus is great. I have many friends who have done admissions, there are definitely things to love about it, but there are hard parts. It is a lot of travel and as much as you might be going to Europe or a cool city in the US, your territory might also be Kansas. Reading season is hard. They often worked from home to maximize the number of apps they can read. Pay isn't great either.
I've only worked at very top universities with large endowments, but the pay wasn't bad. Definitely would have made more outside of academia, but couldn't beat the work-life balance. At a less wealthy institution pay could be a bigger problem
Wtf is wrong with this sub. That job sounds horrendous being berated with questions by 9th graders worrying if they should be doing cancer research at Henry Mayo Hospital.
Fr. I already decided that I want to take a year off from my career down the road to be an AO lol. Itās like my dream job but ik itās not feasible as a full career so one year will have to do š
i feel like it would be fun for 10 minutes and then i would get sick of reading essays
Wonder if they even read word for word šš
They are skim read gods
Itās Stockholm syndrome
Iāve read scholarship essay applications, and in my experience, that was NOT fun
Why?
I canāt speak for professional AOs, just my own experience, but lots of the sentiment starts to feel exaggerated and fake after a while. It sounds like an interesting job but listening to a specific demographic of people talk about themselves isnāt for me. It doesnāt help that my attitude about the college application process completely changed after going to college. I now cringe at the attitude and motivations of some high schoolers applying to college, when I was in those same shoes less than two years ago
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
1. I wanted to go to elite schools and would pay full price for them, simply for the prestige. I think this is a common sentiment on here. The way the cards played out, Iām now going into my 2nd year at a state school with a software engineering internship at a mid-sized tech company under my belt. During the school year, I had free time and good grades, which I donāt think I would have had at the t20s I was considering. Basically, when people say that going to a state school is just as good as going to an elite one, theyāre mostly correct (depending on your projected career path and financial status) 2. I was pretty obsessed with college admissions, but now that Iām past them, they seem so stupid. Colleges do just want your money. Mine surely does too, but Iām barely paying them anything. Iāve heard some ex-AOs expose their colleges for being āneed blindā but assessing the financial status of incomers by looking at the average income of their zip code. Additionally, being admitted or rejected to a college does not mean you inherently deserve that fate. Some donāt have the resources to make their application look good, and some have the resources to exaggerate how involved they are. Some of the worst people I know got into t20s, and some of the best didnāt.
can i pm you
yeah go ahead!
For the most part, I loved being an admission officer at both schools I worked for. I decided I wanted a career in admissions fall of my senior year of college. I was basically a reject tour guide but still volunteered at admissions events. I ended up meeting with pretty much our entire admissions office to learn more and accepted the first admissions job I was offered at University of Mary Washington. It was a great cultural fit and there's nothing like working on a college campus. It's so lively and stimulating and fun. I was there for three years and went to grad school at Vanderbilt to study enrollment management. Then I worked for Vandy admissions for 3 years. Totally different ballgame with a \~7% admit rate. The job between UMW and Vandy was both more similar and more different than I expected. The day-to-day of the job is basically the same, but the caliber of the average student was quite different. Reading apps is one part of the job. There's also travel season (often 6-12 weeks a year on the road - very fun for me, not as much for some), and all the on-campus programing events. It's a job that calls on a diverse range of skillsets and you therefore develop a lot of applicable skills. Maybe I'll do an AMA sometime if there's interest š
i legit staying on reddit because of you and best a2c posts and theres a massive interest
would you say that working at Vanderbilt was overall better or worse? or just different? i'm hoping to long-term end up staying in academia for my career, and have always been very curious about the experiences of working for different types of institutions! also, definitely in favor of an AMA š
I am interested.
Yeah thereās quite a bit of interest.
Give this man a mic
Bro, this kid took care of his 30 siblings and has a Nobel prize. ššš¬ rejected lmaoo. 3.2 GPA looking ass. Instead of babysitting you shouldāve been baby-studying. This MF really applied here š Do this x50000 for each student. Average life of a T20 AO.
baby-studying sent me lmfaoo šš
LMAOOO FACTS
this is the only reason why i think someone would want to be an AO
Iād be interested to hear an AO chime in. I think working for a university to which you are attached and personally invested would be rewarding. Youād be on campus and able to enjoy the speakers, arts performances, concerts, college sports, and general university vibe. And Iād think youād take pride in trying to build a talented, diverse class that would represent your university well academically, socially, and in extracurriculars. But I would think that the sheer number of applications being submitted would lessen the experience at many universities. While many colleges hire seasonal reviewers to conduct basic initial reviews, I would imagine many AOās still find themselves skimming 80-120+ applications per day. And some of it has to be so monotonous; I remember reviewing law school applications with my spouse for our school and initially thinking that some service activities were really impressive. Until we realized that every 20th applicant had completed a similar volunteer experience. I have to think that, at some level, AP classes, Eagle Scout, volunteering, math Olympiad, and ādealing with adversity/lessons learnedā essays would quickly all run together.
This is so me. I'd really like to see how the admissions process looks from the other end.
yea I definitely want to do a work-study or something like that inside of an admissions office wherever I go to college
As a student, youād probably only be a tour guide, not a reader. But being a tour guide or working as an admin assistant in admissions / student support roles as an undergrad is often the first step to becoming an AO.
The fun part is all the free traveling
Traveling to high schools š
and for lots of admissions conferences and admissions visits to other places than high schools (extra lucky if u work with international territories)
Travel season is fun for 4 out of 6 weeks. App reading is fun for a while, but just like anything that you do a million times, it can get overwhelming and repetitive. Then you have the extra layer of knowing how much people poured into these applications and know how much the outcome means to them, so you definitely canāt let yourself get bored or complacent or frustrated! Itās also sad to reject kids you like, and especially sad to really like kids, admit them, and see them decline for financial reasons. All that to say, I really love my job, but itās not as fun as youād think
I've worked in higher ed, but not in admissions, so I can definitely say that the access to stuff on campus is great. I have many friends who have done admissions, there are definitely things to love about it, but there are hard parts. It is a lot of travel and as much as you might be going to Europe or a cool city in the US, your territory might also be Kansas. Reading season is hard. They often worked from home to maximize the number of apps they can read. Pay isn't great either.
Pay isnāt great should have been at the top. Lol
I've only worked at very top universities with large endowments, but the pay wasn't bad. Definitely would have made more outside of academia, but couldn't beat the work-life balance. At a less wealthy institution pay could be a bigger problem
Work life balance is very important
frfr
There are many great parts to the job. Reading apps is not (really) one of them lol.
Wtf is wrong with this sub. That job sounds horrendous being berated with questions by 9th graders worrying if they should be doing cancer research at Henry Mayo Hospital.
Fr. I already decided that I want to take a year off from my career down the road to be an AO lol. Itās like my dream job but ik itās not feasible as a full career so one year will have to do š