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Contact: Jenni Brockman Phone: 804-443-3357 Fax: 804-443-6781 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tappahannock (May 5, 2004) - “If there’s any trick to the college admission process, it’s to keep your ideas to yourself,” Admission Consultant Gary Ripple, Ph.D., told parents in a presentation during St. Margaret’s Spring Family Weekend. 
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St. Margaret’s School College Admission Counselor Mollie Conklin first met Admission Consultant Gary Ripple, Ph.D., when she applied to Bucknell University as a high school junior. Ripple spoke to students and parents at the SMS Spring Family Weekend.
“You want to be able to drop your child off on a college campus in the fall and leave her with the feeling that, one, she’s found her new home, and two, it was her idea.” Ripple, a former chief admission officer at the College of William and Mary, now consults for a number of competitive universities and liberal arts colleges. He shared these additional tips for college-bound students and their families: Take the most challenging courses for which you are prepared. College admission officers would rather see students who push themselves and do the best they can than students who took courses to protect their grade point average. Most good colleges are impressed by recommendations from teachers for whom a student had to struggle. Get deeply involved in a few things. Don’t be a joiner; be a doer! Avoid easy-to-spot application filler, such as multiple memberships in minor organizations. Find your passion and involve yourself deeply in it, whether it’s athletics, drama, publications or school government. Learn now to become responsible. In his more than 30 years of experience, Ripple has found that students who don’t make it though college have one thing in common: they were unwilling or unable to become responsible for themselves. Self-accountability is a skill that high school students can learn by realizing that their choices have consequences, accepting those consequences, and learning from them. Ripple and his colleagues also have found that students who make the most of their opportunities in high school are the students who will make the most of college. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. “Who you become in life is related to your talent, work ethic and character,” said Ripple, “not the name recognition of the college you attended.” He advises students to choose colleges where they can not only get a good education at an appropriate level of challenge, but also where they can be happy. In addition to his tenure at William and Mary, Ripple has led admission efforts at Lafayette College and Ohio Wesleyan University, and served on the admission staff of Bucknell University. His professional experience includes membership on the National Merit Scholarship Selection Committee and the Presidential Scholars Review Committee. He is a recipient of the Gayle C. Wilson Award for Outstanding Dedication to the Profession of College Admission Counseling from the National Association for College Admission Counseling. |
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