Admission Reps from Yale, Gettysburg and Boston College conduct workshops at Pomfret School

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In the photo, l-r: College Admission reps Kelly Montrym from Boston College, Ian Harkness from Gettysburg College, and Debra Johns from Yale.

POMFRET, CT (05/23/2013)(readMedia)-- Members of the Pomfret School class of 2014 were given an early college advantage recently when visiting admissions reps-Ian Harkness from Gettysburg College, Kelly Montrym from Boston College, and Debra Johns from Yale-conducted application and interview workshops. In the first of two exercises the tables were turned as the students, granted ad hoc admission committee status, were given two fabricated applications to consider. In the second, a mock interview put Mike Revelakis, a junior from Laval, Canada, in the hot seat with Gettysburg's Harkness.

The applications (to a nonexistent college named Chesterton) featured a science-oriented African-American student named Howie and a tennis all-star named Hobie. Things to consider, said Yale's Johns, were that Howie, while academically a "little lopsided" was appealing because he "sees his trajectory past high school." Hobie-a legacy, while a gifted athlete and popular student with extracurricular involvement, had unwittingly presented herself as being perhaps a bit too "mono-focused" on tennis. After Hobie won the students' vote, Johns revealed she would have admitted Howie, and probably put Hobie on the wait list.

In the end, good advice from the Yale office. "Think of this as a process," said Johns, "and you are in the driver's seat." The applications that stand out, she added, are the ones that convey "effort, time, confidence, and pride."