I've mentioned a few times on this blog that I am also a tour guide for the admissions department, but I've never written a whole post about work with admissions and being a guide, so I thought I would be fun to take some time and give you a behind-the-scenes look at the admissions department.
I loved visiting colleges when I was a prospective student. I took a week and a half in the fall of my senior year, and visited all of the schools I was interested in up and down the west coast. I think it was an important experience for me to see all my options and better understand what I was looking for in my college experience. I particularly loved my visit to Lewis & Clark, and I know visiting LC is a big part of how I would up choosing to go to school here and loving it. So with that as my experience, I know I wanted to work with the admissions department and introduce prospective students to LC and give them a good experience like I had.
So I started off working with admissions as an overnight host and general volunteer for events. Overnight hosting isn't happening in the time of covid, but in a typical year, prospective students have the option of staying the night with a current student, typically a first-year or sophomore who also just went through the process of looking at schools. Staying overnight is a great chance to see some dorms, eat in the dining hall, and most importantly hang out with students and get a feel for the culture of the school. I loved hosting prospective students for a few reasons. Firstly, it was a great way for me to meet other LC students who worked with admissions. I also really enjoyed getting to show new students around campus and show off how pretty it is. I was also fun to talk through the college search process right after I had gone trough it all myself. So overnight hosting was great, and I did a lot of it especially spring of my first year.
Becuase I had already been volunteering with admissions, I was asked if I wanted to apply as a tour guide, and I said yes. I went through the training process and shadowed several tours, and then gave my first few tours with a returner shadowing me. And since then I've given tours every week that I've been on campus. It's most hectic in the spring when seniors are visiting schools they've been admitted to and we have lots of visitors. I enjoy the first few feeks of the fall when there are only a handful of student search day and the weather is the most perfect. This year we've also had the option of virtual tours where we voice over a video walkthrough of campus. No matter what, I just enjoy getting to talk about LC and how I've enjoyed going to a small school.
There are also different volunteer opportunities with admissions during our big visit weekends where dozens and dozens of prospective students all come at once, and for some of our fly in programs for scholarship candidates. Those weekends are fun because it's a whole group of prospective students that you get to hang out with, and usually admissions helps put on game nights and events to keep everyone entertained.
Lastly, if you're interested getting a more full time job working 8+ hours a week, you can apply to be an admissions fellow. Fellows work to organize all the other student workers, and to help with things like big visit days, interviews with applicants, and stepping in for tours and and other hosting jobs as needed. It's a really great opportunity to learn management skills and have a job that's flexible around your school work.
Most of all though I really enjoy all of the admissions counselors and staff that I get to work with, as well as my fellow students because we're all there because we love LC. So if you get the chance to visit LC I hope you enjoy your visit with all these lovely people, and if you come to LC as a student, I hope you can work with admissions if this sounds fun to you.
If you have any questions, don't hesitat to reach out and email me at quentingaul@lclark.edu