If you read Inside Admissions, you know that the life of an admissions officer is busy during the academic year (and if you don't, go check it out here). As a student worker in the office, I find myself becoming an observer of the officers as they leave for travel, arrive bleary eyed during reading season, and go through the decision process. At the end of all the madness, summer is a welcome respite.
But, amidst the summer fun and well-deserved R&R, one afternoon took on the utmost seriousness. I watched the team assemble with a level of seriousness and intensity rarely seen in the summer. Clipboards, printouts, schematics, computers, and iPads surrounded the huddled officers in the conference room. I am speaking, of course, about the 2013-14 Tufts Admissions Office Fantasy Football Draft.
Admissions Officers are professionally selective. Their natural skill set is kind of perfect for Fantasy Football. It is literally their job to figure out how effectively somebody will perform in an environment based on limited information, and they are all pros. It was sort of like watching the Supreme Court mediate roommate conflicts at Tufts: they were all overqualified and overprepared. Just like during reading season, they had documented everything about the players. They looked at the numbers, sure, but they also had to look at the character of the players to predict their success. They always kept an eye on context, thinking carefully about the environments of the players, and how they might perform differently in new environments. So the buzzer went off to start the draft and, for a couple hours, they really did have at it.
As your friendly neighborhood admissions spy, I documented the event for your enjoyment: