Thomas - Week 6 - MSU Admissions

This week, the Office of Admissions began its annual staff retreat. For Monday and Tuesday, Molly and Dan have a full itinerary planned for the admissions counselors, graduate assistants, and me.

We had a long day today, starting the morning with breakfast at 8:30 AM and ending with a staff meeting at 5 PM. Throughout the day, we met with representatives from seven of the colleges here on campus. Each representative was asked to provide the staff with a basic rundown of their department, what majors and/or scholarships are offered, and some points of pride in order to better market the specific departments while on the road.

Throughout many of our classes, we have discussed how Admissions differs at each university; sometimes it is included in the department of Student Affairs, but many times it is classified as academics. After today, that concept was made very clear to me as I was able to witness this struggle firsthand. The admissions counselors know almost everything about each academic department on campus -- how else are they going to market our university to each specific student who needs to know about one of our 100+ majors?  However, many of the academic representatives do not feel that the admissions counselors need to recruit students. They expressed today that they feel it is their responsibility and they do not seem willing to cooperate and work together with the AC's to join forces in recruiting. It was very disappointing to the AC's because they began to feel like their hard work and dedication is not appreciated when they strive to recruit the best students and continue to break enrollment trends from previous years.

Excited for tomorrow -- we will be touring all of the athletic facilities including the Mize Pavillion!

Megan