Every Friday an editorial board member speaks with a prominent figure from the University or surrounding community. This week, Alexandra Willcox sat down with Ashley Memory of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
I t’s an exciting time in the admissions office, with the regular decision announcements just around the corner. Soon, thousands of students will be celebrating their enrollment, but even more will be rejected. Memory and the rest of the admissions office are ready to provide consolation and support to all who need it.
“It’s horrible when your heart is set on a college and unfortunately, you’re not admitted. We can understand that here. That’s part of what we do — we feel horrible for the applicants, and we want to do all we can do to help them through this.”
The admissions process is not faceless. Memory finds personal connections with students every day, and those who review applications take a holistic approach, considering everything a student has done — not just test scores.
“Each year our (admitted) students bring a different set of talents. They are definitely very smart, but it’s hard to quantify them as a complete class because we get to know them on a very individual level.”
This year, the office had to deal with a new problem when glitches in the Common Application were disabling students from submitting parts of their application on the day of the early action deadline. That day, Memory and her colleagues received over 1,000 phone calls and ended up postponing the deadline for a week, and even longer for some students with extenuating circumstances.
They understand all the work students have put into preparing for college, and don’t want their applications to be in jeopardy because of technical bugs.
In reference to the recent changes to the SAT, including making the essay portion optional, Memory again thinks first and foremost of making the process smoother for applicants, especially first-generation college students who may be most unfamiliar with standardized tests.
“We know that the overarching goals for this change were to make it more accessible to students from all backgrounds. And we do certainly welcome that. We want to do our part.”
