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Scott Seseske, Assistant Dean of Admission
Hometown: Pittsfield, MA
Education: B.A. in English from Providence College (Class of 2004), Member of Liberal Arts Honors Program
Geographic Responsibilities (travel territories): MA (Berkshire and Franklin counties; Lowell, Concord, and
Wellesley areas), AZ, CA, HI, NM
Office Responsibilities: Admission Ambassador Coordinator, Athletic Department Liaison (Lacrosse), Recruitment
Publications Task Force (Electronic Communication & Blog Coordinator), School/College Relations Committee
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As I've mentioned a few times in this space, our incredibly strong Early Action applicant pool consisted of nearly 3,500 applications this year, up about 300 from our Early Action pool last year.
It's a fine line we walk each year with Early Action, because we have (literally) thousands of qualified candidates who apply EA but also have...
(1) just over 1,000 spaces in our freshman class and
(2) (literally) thousands more who will be applying Regular Decision (last year, more than 5,600 students applied Regular Decision).
(I wrote a very similar paragraph to that one last year at Early Action.)
Therefore, we have to balance these two things:
First of all, we want to accept as many deserving students as we can Early Action, because they have earned that invitation to Providence College. Second, we have to protect the deserving students still to come in our Regular Decision pool, making sure that there is still room in the freshman class for these qualified students. So, we come to a number of EA invites that we feel is fair to both of these groups... and this year, that number was just over 1,900 acceptances. We feel this number represents a good balance that rewards the deserving students who applied EA while not penalizing the students who choose to apply at Regular (there will still be spaces available to those qualified applicants!). And remember, each year we accept more than the 1,000 or so that we have space for in the freshman class knowing that not every student will in turn "accept us" - they'll have a lot of great schools to choose from!
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But are there more than the 1,900 students we have accepted that we can see being great fits to PC (both in and out of the classroom)? Yes, there are - like I said, we had an incredibly strong applicant pool. There are many students who are just a notch below the top of our pool (the students we invited) who received defer letters in the mail... And it is important to note here that when we defer a student EA, it is because we do see that student being competitive in our Regular Decision review process - in other words, a defer should not be interpreted as a "soft deny." For students who are deferred, their applications will be considered again during the Regular Decision review process in the context of our entire applicant pool.
In addition to inviting and deferring students EA, we also denied a number of students at Early - this is a final decision and students who received an EA deny cannot apply again during Regular Decision. The reason we deny students at Early is because our review processes are very similar at Early and Regular... and therefore, if a student is clearly not competitive in our EA pool, we know that he/she will not be competitive in our Regular Decision pool either. So, instead of deferring that student knowing that we will eventually deny him or her in March, we feel it is better for the student to learn the decision in December so he/she can move on to other college options.
The EA "invited student profile" is as follows:
-Honors/AP level curriculum and an average GPA of an A-minus throughout high school (the average class rank - for students attending high schools that report rank - was 11%).
-Strong curriculum/performance in the Humanities (History and especially English) during high school, in preparation for our liberal arts core curriculum.
-Strong fit to major; for example, declared Biology majors had to show the most demanding math and science curriculum their high school offered, and achieve at a very high level in that curriculum. Many also added outside of the classroom preparation to their strong academic prep (volunteering at a hospital, an internship in a related area, a summer class/experience).
-Genuine commitment to extracurricular activities and/or part-time jobs; and true leadership roles in these activities.
-A well-written, appropriate essay (and Providence College supplemental statement).
-Strong recommendations from high school counselors and teachers.
About 34% of Early Action applicants applied without submitting standardized test scores. For those who did send us their SATs, the average scores for invited students are: 640 Critical Reading, 650 Math, 650 Writing.
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Many more thoughts on Early Action to come, from the committee on admission meetings to the profile of the students selected to join the Liberal Arts Honors Program. We're also 10 days away from January 15 - so we are currently making the transition to the Regular Decision review process here in the office. Updates on Regular Decision will be coming soon as well.
*Scott
For our Early Action invited students:
*If you're interested in chatting with others who were accepted EA to PC, there's a Providence Class of 2013 Facebook group out there that's worth checking out! (Started and run by your potential future classmates!) Search Facebook for Providence College '13 to find it.
*We hope to see you all at PC Up Close, an on-campus program for all students invited to PC Early Action. You'll be receiving your invitation shortly (if you haven't already!) for this February event.
*Need-based financial aid information will be mailed on or around February 1st.
 
Best wishes to you and your family for a happy, healthy, and blessed 2009!
There are certain questions that we hear all the time regarding the admission review process: What is your average GPA for admitted students? Should I submit my SAT scores? Who should I get to write my teacher recommendations? What should I write my essay about?
But a question we hear a lot at this time of the year is this: Why didn't I get in to PC?
Honestly, there are a lot of different reasons, as each student's application is considered individually and thoroughly in the context of our entire applicant pool and our freshman class size. For some students, their academic performance at the high school level (measured by the combination of strength of curriculum and GPA) has not prepared them to succeed in our classrooms at Providence College. When we see a student who hasn't achieved strong grades in a challenging high school schedule, we do not feel confident in their ability to then achieve in our academic environment. But many other students are more borderline, and there are certain areas that stand out time and time again that lead us to deny a student from PC. The list below highlights some of the major things that hurt a student's opportunity for admission to Providence College:
1. GPA Digression - This is a big one. A downward trend in academic performance is a major red flag for us. The student who has an A-minus GPA freshman year... and then a B-average sophomore year... and then a B-minus GPA junior year... It's incredibly difficult for a student with this type of GPA trend to gain admission to PC... because so many other students consistently perform at a high level (in a challenging curriculum) throughout all four years of high school. Digression in GPA is one reason that not every student who meets our average invited student GPA is accepted to PC. And it's also why we don't simply look at a cumulative GPA by itself. How a student gets to that GPA is incredibly important in our review. Simply stated, a student who has his or her best year as a freshman and digresses significantly from there is not likely to be a competitive candidate for admission.
2. Weak Senior Curriculum - This is also a big factor... Senior year performance is critically important because we want students to be doing their best work and continuing to challenge themselves as they get ready to transition to the college level. A soft senior schedule is an easy way to stand out negatively in the applicant pool. More often than not, if a student is borderline in our EA pool based on previous academic performance (i.e. they are not strong enough to invite so they could be a defer or a deny) AND they have a weak senior schedule, they are going to receive the deny decision. Why? Because when we defer a student at Early Action, we do so in order to see how they compare with the students who apply at Regular Decision AND to see how the student performs in that first semester of senior year. But if the student has a weak senior curriculum, those first semester grades aren't going to tell us much... and since we don't see the student as admissable academically and won't have any additional information during the Regular Decision review (due to the weak curriculum) that will improve his or her academics, generally this type of student will receive that deny decision.
3. Inadequate Preparation for Major - This occurs most often for students who are declared science majors. Weak science/math course selection and/or performance during high school means that these students are not prepared to succeed in our rigorous science courses at PC. A declared Biology major who has only reached Algebra 2 or a Chemistry major who decided not to take Physics during high school will find it hard to gain much support from the committee on admission.
4. Lack of Meaningful Involvement - I say it over and over on this blog, we say it all over the website, at campus information sessions, and at college fairs and high school visits: Academic performance during high school is the most important part of the review process. But it's not the only part of the review, and the non-academic pieces of the application can (and do) sway the decision - both positively and negatively. As we build a strong academic freshman class, we are also building a community, and inviting students who will bring their interests and talents to campus outside of the classroom as well. And again, in a deep and competitive applicant pool, students who are borderline academically and haven't shown involvement in and commitment to high school activities, internships, or part-time jobs simply do not measure up to the many, many students who do make the most of their time outside of the classroom.
5. Negative Attitude in the Application - We don't see this too often, but it does come up a couple of times each year. As one of our counselors puts it, "I wouldn't want this student to be my sister's roommate." A student who puts down others or makes hurtful or inappropriate comments in his or her essay is not someone we want as part of our freshman class at PC.
6. Poor Effort/Presentation of Application - Lots of misspelled words... a one paragraph essay... no PC Supplemental statement... In a competitive pool, a student who clearly hasn't put a lot of effort into the application is not going to be very attractive to us. If a student isn't interested in making a strong presentation in the application, it's hard for us to be interested in having that student on our campus.
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Updates:
Liberal Arts Honors Program invitations were mailed on December 23. Need-based financial aid packages for Early Action students will be released on or around February 1.
Still to come on this blog in the next couple of weeks: the profile for the students invited Early Action and a look at the Liberal Arts Honors Program.
Best wishes to you and your family for a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2009!
*Scott
There they go! Early Action decision letters are in the mail as of 9:45 this morning!
Hey everybody - sorry for those technical difficulties over the weekend! But happy to report the blog is back on track!
We have completed our committee on admission meetings and the Early Action application review! Currently, we are completing the "technical" part of the process that I mentioned briefly in my last post: printing and proofreading decision letters, stuffing and sealing envelopes, and soon we will be completing final "roster checks" to make sure that every student who applied will receive a decision letter.
Here at PC, admission decisions are only released through the mail, and it is looking right now like they will be arriving just before Christmas. Decisions are not released via e-mail. Also, please do not call the Office of Admission looking for your admission decision, because college policy prevents us from giving out that information over the phone.
I will keep you updated as we move along with the decision letters, and will post here when the letters leave our office.
We are spending today in our committee on admission meetings! Here's the quick recap of how we got here... what's happened in our office since the November 1 Early Action deadline:
1. 3,500 EA applications arrived in our office (up about 300 from last year's Early Action number).
2. Applications entered into our computer system and sorted according to geographic territory/high school by our outstanding operations staff.
3. Lots and lots of mail pours in throughout the month of November, consisting of supporting credentials to our EA applications. These high school transcripts, letters of recommendation, SAT/ACT scores, first quarter and trimester grades, and other additional pieces are entered into our computer system and then physically matched up to their respective applications (a big thank you to our student workers and other support staff who literally spent weeks accomplishing this important task!).
4. Each admission counselor completes his or her "first reads." The 3,500 Early Action applications are divided up by geographic territory, so that each counselor is reading the applications from the areas we visited in the fall. Most of our 15 counselors had between 250-350 applications to complete a first review on.
5. After all applications have gone through the first read process, a second admission counselor takes a look at them, and either agrees or disagrees with the first reader's recommendation (to invite, defer, or deny the applicant).
6. When second reads have been completed on all applications, these files can go a number of different directions. Those at the very top and very bottom of the applicant pool are done, having received a final decision at this point. For the majority of applications that aren't at either end of the spectrum, the process continues. Some will go on to a third (and sometimes a fourth) reader. Nearly 600 other applications are considered by the entire admission staff at our committee on admission meetings, where we are today.
7. The applications being considered in committee are students who are competitive academically in our process, but are truly "at the margin" - during the EA process, they could be invites or defers (rarely are committee files denied, because students don't generally make it to committee without solid academic preparation/personal qualities). While we do talk about academics in committee (especially GPA progression/digression during high school and strength of the senior year curriculum), often times distinctions between similiar students are made by looking at personal qualities and non-academic pieces of the application.
So... that brings us up to date with where we are today. We have spent the past week in our committee review, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As we wrap up the EA review process, we will turn to production (and proofreading!) of decision letters over the next week. More details to come!
We're well into the Early Action review process here on December 6th, and while we have talked a lot about the academic portion of our review, our admission counselors spend just as much time carefully considering the subjective, non-academic pieces of each application. At PC, we feel lucky each year to have a very talented applicant pool, in terms of high school academic performance. What this means is that we see many more "qualified" candidates (students who we believe could succeed academically at PC based on their high school curriculum and performance) than we have space in our freshman class for. So, how do we make distinctions when considering students who look very, very similiar academically?
The answer is that we look beyond the transcript, and use the non-academic pieces of each student's application to get a sense of who that student is on the personal level, and also what they will bring to our campus community outside of the classroom. First and foremost, we want to enroll a strong academic freshman class... but, we also don't want to have 1,000 incoming freshman who sit in their residence halls or the library 24/7. PC has always been known for our vibrant, active, involved community, and to continue to have that type of environment on campus, the admission committee will select students who show us that they have been similiarly involved during their four years of high school.
What kind of involvement do we look for? All different kinds! We have over 70 student clubs and organizations; 19 Division 1 sports teams; an incredibly active and dedicated Campus Ministry organization; opportunities for actors, musicians, and dancers in our Smith Center for the Arts; and so many more ways to get involved. In other words, when we look at high school involvement, we don't see one certain activity as "better" than another. We are looking for a wide range of different activities to be represented by the students in our freshman class.
In the group of applications I've read so far, I have found 3-sport athletes, Student Council Presidents, students deeply committed to community service, students who work more than 20 hours per week during the school year... and many other kinds of involvement. Rest assured, regardless of what you are involved with inside or outside of your high school, these activities and/or work experiences will be strongly considered by our committee on admission.
One last note on activities... Remember, it's not the quantity of your involvement, but rather the quality that will make your extracurricular profile stand out. Dedication to two or three activities where a student has taken on a true leadership role often makes more of an impact than a student who is "involved" in 15 different organizations - but not necessarily committed to any of them. We're not looking for the students with the longest activity sheets, but rather the students who have shown true dedication, commitment, and leadership to the activities they have been involved in, and will bring those qualities to our campus community next fall.
We'll talk again on the other side of the break!
Hi everybody... Let's talk a little bit about the academic review process here at PC. We are well into the Early Action application review, and I have personally already read a good number of applications from my geographic territories. So... what stands out?
Well, senior year curriculum is a good place to start. With Early Action applicants, we do not see their first semester senior year grades, but we do take a close look at curriculum. This schedule is important because we want to see a strong finish to the high school career so students are academically ready to tackle our courses at PC next fall. I have been impressed with a lot of students who have continued to take on a challenging courseload senior year - often taking additional core academic electives ("doubling-up" by taking two history classes or two math classes, in addition to completing a fourth year of all five core subject areas). Another positive I have seen with regard to senior curriculum are the students who are truly challenging themselves in their areas of interest. I just finished reading a Biology major applicant who took on AP Calculus, AP Biology, and Honors Physics senior year - a nice preparation for the area of study that she is looking to go into.
Unfortunately, I have also been disappointed with some of the senior schedules I have seen - both the overall senior curriculum and also schedules in the context of chosen majors. Earlier today, I read (another) Biology major applicant who finished Algebra 2 junior year but elected not to continue with a math class senior year. Not a good decision by that student... how can we be confident that he will succeed in our Bio program (which requires a strong math background!) when he has only taken up to Algebra 2, and will have a full year without any math before starting college? (By the way, our Biology majors at PC start freshman year by taking Calculus in addition to General Biology, General Chemistry, and our Development of Western Civilization program, so a student who hasn't shown successful math performance through at least Pre Calculus during high school isn't going to fare too well... and likely isn't going to be invited).
Sorry to stay with the negative, but a couple of other disappointing things I've noticed during the academic review: (1) students who have three very challenging years of high school, then significantly reduce academic challenge senior year and (2) students who submit very strong SAT/ACT scores, but don't back up that performance with their work in the classroom. Unfortunately for students in both of these situations, they are not competitive applicants in the context of our Early Action applicant pool.
Okay... I am headed back to read some more applications. Of course, more thoughts to come on academics and the personal, subjective, non-academic pieces of the application as well as we continue through the Early Action process. See you soon!
Game #1 of the regular season is tonight for the PC men's basketball team!
Come chat with admission counselors (me!!) and current PC students today (11/12) and tomorrow (11/13) at www.collegeweeklive.com. A counselor will be online from 9 AM to 8 PM both days, and current students will be available to chat after 4 PM both days. It's a great way to get any quick PC questions answered!! Hope to chat with you later today or tomorrow!!
*Scott
This week marks the beginning of the Early Action (EA) application review process in the Office of Admission - and we are definitely excited about it! Our 15 admission counselors attended our annual "reading (applications) meeting" on Monday, to talk about the EA applicant pool and what we will be looking for as we review applications this year to build the Providence College Class of 2013.
And speaking of reviewing applications...
We initially read applications here at PC by geographic territory, and as you can see in my bio at the top of this blog, I travel to and am the first reader of all applications from the following areas:
1) Parts of Massachusetts (Berkshire and Franklin Counties in Western Mass and the Concord, Lowell, and Wellesley areas west of Boston)
2) California
3) Arizona
4) New Mexico
5) Hawaii
As the first reader of applications from these areas, I am responsible for having a sense of the high school environments these students are coming out of, and I have spent the last two months traveling to these areas, visiting high schools, attending college fairs, and meeting prospective students, families, and high school counselors. If you are from any of these areas and have applied to PC Early Action, I will be the first person to thoroughly review your application... in fact, it could be on my desk as we speak...
I do have my first 35 or so applications in my office, and I spent some time yesterday looking at the academic performance of these students. While the admission review at PC is holistic, and we carefully consider all pieces of the application, we begin with a student's academic record and take a close look at high school performance. We spend a significant amount of time exploring each student's transcript, looking at the strength of their curriculum, the high school environment they are coming out of, and recalculating each student's GPA on to our Providence College 4.0 scale. We'll talk more about the academic component of the review later on this week, and as we progress through the month of November, I will delve into the subjective, non-academic pieces of the application as well (such as recommendations, the college essay, and involvement/leadership during the high school years).
As always, should you have questions about how we review applications here at PC, please feel free to post them in the "Comments" section of this blog (click on the "Comments" link in the bottom right corner) and I will be happy to answer them!
Good luck to those of you who have submitted your applications to be reviewed during the Early Action process. Our entire admission staff has arrived back home from the road, and we will be having our annual "reading meeting" on Monday morning, as we get set to review our Early Action applicants!
Hi everybody... Our Early Action deadline is quickly approaching - it is this Saturday, November 1. Some housekeeping items for those of you who applied (or are planning to apply) EA:
*After the deadline passes, and our office settles down from the bins of mail and thousands of electronic submissions we've been receiving, we will send out an application checklist to all students who have applied EA. This checklist will let you know if any pieces of your application (essays, recommendations, transcript, etc.) are missing.
*If you took an October SAT/ACT and/or are taking the SAT this Saturday, and want us to consider your scores as part of your Early Action application, October and November scores generally do arrive in time from the College Board to be considered.
*The Early Action Financial Aid deadlines are December 1 for the CSS Profile and February 1 for the FAFSA.
*And, of course, remember that to be considered during the Early Action review, your application (and PC Supplement) must be submitted online via the Common App website or postmarked by Saturday!
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