I was hanging out with your guidance counselor. No, seriously. We totally talked about you. You sound like a good kid.
We were hanging out at the National Association for College Admissions Counseling, or NACAC (pronounced "nack-ack" - I like to imagine the AFLAC duck saying it), National Conference in Austin, TX. Four days of panel discussions, "educational sessions" (which are like a one-off crash course), inspirational speeches, receptions, and being taken out to dinner by our publisher.
What are conferences like this for? Well, college admissions and guidance counselors learn a lot when we get together. We talk to each other about current research and the best ways to go about the work of reading files, managing student volunteers, and running visit programs. We also make a lot of contacts -- I once introduced myself to someone in line for the bathroom. Yes, it was a little weird. But she works at a high school I read a lot of applications from, and now I can put a face to the name on those letters!
Yet what I think is most important, though, is that we take the time to reassure ourselves that there is a great wide world of college counseling, that it is by and large an amicable, cooperative world, and that we're not going this alone.
With that in mind, here's a list of "You know you work in college admissions if..." that has been forwarded around my circle of conference buddies recently. This was originally a very long list, which I have edited down to the more funny/applicable ones.
You Know You're in College Admissions If ...
You are under 25 but you have purchased orthopedic insoles for your fair shoes.
You actually have shoes you call "fair shoes."
You are so familiar with the school that you are always next to alphabetically you know that you could easily work for them. (I haven't done a fair in a while, but I used to be able to tell you the number of astronauts who have graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder.)
You dread going back to the office because of all the email that awaits you.
You know the key to finding a school in a small town is to look for the football lights. (Helloooooo Tejas.)
While driving, you balance and read a map on your lap, steering with your knee while sipping the coffee in your right hand and eating a hotel donut from your left.
You start to wonder if your college does have a major in cosmetology.
Changing into comfortable travel clothes in a high school/hotel/rest stop bathroom is a necessity.
You are in a hotel hallway and trying to open the door for the room number that you had LAST night and can't understand why it won't work.
I'd like to add a few of my own to this list:
You drive a rental car so often you have attempted to push buttons or toggle levers in your own car that do not exist.
Realizing that many high school campuses look like low-security prisons, you have either slowed down or actually stopped at a low-security "detainment facility."
You have dialed a wrong number and asked a very confused housewife if you may speak to her college counseling office.
You are unclear whether you actually have co-workers any more, or if you work alone with a number of robots programmed to reply to all your emails with an "out of office" message.
