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Class of 2002
Multiply this assignment by 180 and you begin to get an inkling of what
it's like to be an admission officer.
Holly Thompson, senior associate director of admission, doesn't sleep
much during reading period. "But then again, that's the norm here," she
says. A mother of three school-age children, she prepares for reading
period as if for hibernation. "Just before we started reading," she
says, "I went to the Price Club and bought, among other things, 16 rolls
of paper towels, ten pounds of sharp cheddar cheese, 48 rolls of toilet
paper, three industrial size boxes of Goldfish crackers, six dozen juice
boxes and three dozen cans of frozen orange juice. The idea is to be
able to do all the usual marketing between now and March at our
neighborhood market."
Her colleague, Nicole Burrell, makes it a point to sign up for a class
to get her mind off work. "The idea is that if I pay money for
something, I'll actually go and it will get me away from reading," says
Burrell, who has learned flamenco dance, investing and Latin American
waltz in previous years. "This year," she says, "it will be metalworking
and a continuing studies class."
Jonathan Reider, senior associate director of admission, says it's not
uncommon to work seven days a week during reading time.
The spike in applications this year means admission officers will be
working even harder to deliver decisions on time.
In December, the first offers of admission were mailed out. Of the
410 students who were admitted in the first round of early
decision, more than half had perfect 4.0 grade point averages, and
approximately 75 percent reported combined SAT scores of 1400 or above
out of a possible 1600.
"It's hard for people outside admissions to even fathom how competitive
the pool is," says Robert Kinnally, the new dean of admission and
financial aid. "We're struck by it every time that we sit down and read
the applications."
 innally,
37, is an approachable fellow who
looks as if he could be actor Matthew Broderick's older brother. His 14
years of admission experience include three years as dean of admission
at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville. He stumbled upon his career in
admission by accident. While he was attending New
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