Who Needs Sleep? I've got Tufts2016.
It's 5:29am and I just arrived in Singapore after high winds forced my plane to temporarily land in Nagoya, Japan. I haven't eaten anything in 9 hours, and I haven't really slept in nearly 40. In 6.5 hours, I'll need to start setting up an event for a few dozen people. I ought to be miserable, but all told, I'm awfully cheery. I mean, regardless of sleep deprivation, in a handful of hours, I'll get to ACTUALLY MEET the students I just spent the last three months trying to admit. All these students who I totally fell in love with (in a not creepy way, I promise) and soon I'll get to tell them, face-to-face, why. Jumbo Love from the other side of the globe, Dan
If You Just Heard
I am so ridiculously excited about #Tufts2016. So so so excited. I'm giddy that decisions are released online so I can finally start congratulating those applicants whose personalities and stories resonated so strongly with me.
For those of you who will be admitted, here's what I can share with you from my vantage point as an admissions officer.for your class and what you'll become.
- We were extremely thorough. We read all your essays, we understood that slightly veiled reference to Sherlock Holmes even though you didn't mention Sherlock Holmes, and we recognized which tour guide you said you liked even though you couldn't remember her name.
- We, like you, are really excited for what comes next. I hope you'll share that excitement. I hope you'll visit campus again, that you’ll track down the admissions officer who gave your info session just to say hello, that you’ll photoshop out that guy sitting in that picture on that green space in that Tufts brochure and photoshop yourself...
Remix to Admissions*
I asked you for recommendations for my application reading, and you came through (I cannot stop listening to Fleet Foxes). Now it's our turn to share our music with you. Quick aside: I firmly believe your music does not say as much about who you are as one would expect. There are BIG surprises in this list for me, so don't interpret too much from any single person's list, but I like what this says about the array of personalities in our office as a whole. Next to each admissions officer, I've included the territory they manage.
Here is what we're listening to when we read applications.
Emily Roper-Doten (parts of California, central New York, Tennessee): Depending on the day, a white noise app (either “gentle rain with distant thunder”, “gentle rain on forest foliage”, “medium rain against windows”) or Josh Rouse (albums 1972, Country Mouse City House or El Tourista), Fleet Foxes, Book of Mormon Soundtrack, or one of my Pandora Stations (Adele modified by Fitz and the Tantrums and Morrissey...
The Soundtrack to Your Application
This is what I look like when I’m reading your application. Given that I always, always, always read apps with my headphones pumping, I have a request for you, gentle reader:
If you could give your admissions officer an album to listen to while reading your application, what would give us? What would you want us to listen to? (Seriously, because I’ll listen to it). What do you have pumping through your iPod that you love so much you just have to share?
I’m not alone, walk through the admissions office during Reading Season (capital letters), and you’ll catch any number of your Tufts admissions officers with eyes on an essay, and ears listening to Ke$ha. *Cough* Matt Alander. Even Lee, our dean, and though I haven’t asked, I’d guess there’s a fair amount of overlap between his playlist and Billboard’s Hot 100. I have some standbys, songs that I bring back year after year to get me through the winter and the 1000 applications I’ll read: the Avett Brothers, Johnny Cash, Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along...
Primary Interests
Here’s a short list of items for which my appetite is essentially bottomless: xiao long bao, songs by the Avett Brothers, mango smoothies, awesome German words, Murakami novels, and politics.
I’ve watched political debates with popcorn, CSPAN was one of my radio presets in high school, and my bookmarked websites include the Weekly Standard, Slate.com, and the BBC’s Middle East section. When the NH primary rolled around, I made an appointment to listen to NPR’s coverage, and I took notes during Mitt Romney’s victory speech (celebrating my nerdy side?). I remembered listening to Barack Obama’s speech when he stood in the same position four years ago, and, just because I think it’s interesting, I’ve posted both speeches below.
I’m not trying to make any point other than the following: man, politics are interesting.