Higher Education Preview Days

The Higher Education Preview Days last week were fantastic! It was such a pleasure to finally meet many of the accepted higher education students. On Sunday evening, we started with a fabulous three course dinner at City Tap House, just blocks from the Graduate School of Education building. Throughout the dinner, I talked with students about their goals, expectations and excitement for the two busy days that were to follow. I learned about where people were from, what they were interested and why they were here. After dinner, we headed over to Drinker's West, where the current cohort holds our weekly happy hour. There was a comedy show going on there, so we headed right on over to Cavannaugh's a block up the street. There, I had conversations with prospective students about admissions, development, research, our faculty, program, living in Philadelphia and the assistantships. As an aspiring admissions, professional, it was great to be able to gain more familiarity with people's questions, concerns and values as they evaluate different programs. It was also simply wonderful to see everyone's smiling faces and hear about all of the areas in higher education that we are interested in! One thing kept running through my head. I love this program, but to me this is not about selling the program. I think of admissions differently. I think of admissions as a way to help facilitate the transfer of information so that people can gain a sense of whether or not the program is a fit. In short, I am here to answer questions and connect people.

There's something else my mind kept drifting back to as well. Almost all, if not all, of the accepted students who traveled to Penn last week to get a sneak peek at the Higher Education Master's program will be colleagues, in one form or another no matter where they decide to attend graduate school. We all share this important thing in common; we are passionately inspired by the field of higher education.

Maybe that thought stems from all of the networking I have been doing lately. In fact, I am sure that is why I keep thinking that. I have learned in the last year or so that one of the most important things one can do in their professional career is stay connected to other professionals in the field (and people in other fields).

If you are reading this and we met at Preview Day, Hi! I hope you enjoyed your time here in Philadelphia and that you learned as much as you possibly could about the cohort, the assistantships, the curriculum, the faculty and the location. If you want to connect and ask more questions, feel free to drop me a line on email or call admissions.

For those of you who have been accepted to the higher education program, but were unable to attend the Preview Days, don't fret! I was in your shoes last year. I lived in California and could not just take off from work in order to attend. There are still ways to connect even if you can't come to campus. I never officially visited campus, but I certainly did my share of calling and emailing! There are also a couple more opportunities to connect with Penn GSE online of off-campus. On April 4th, Admissions will be having an event in Boston for accepted students!