At home, with a pile of files

It’s January, and I’m at home today, so it must be time to write about reading application files. Last year, Kristen, Laurie, and I, offered our thoughts on the process (twice for me). What can I add this year? On the home front, I’m happy to say that we made a capital investment in a desk last summer! This has enabled me to move off the kitchen table and onto a more appropriate surface. My husband and I have been married long enough that we should have abandoned our post-grad-student plank-on-a-file-cabinet computer table long ago, but somehow we didn’t. I’m very happy with the desk, which has room for me and my application files.

On the Fletcher front, of course, both reading of applications and discussion of the applicants will have some new features this year because of the new degree programs. We’ll start off having only a few different readers reviewing MIB and LLM applications, while we get to know the two new programs’ applicants.  But one thing remains the same: Every application to Fletcher is reviewed by at least two sets of eyes.

One other thing remains the same: I truly enjoy this aspect of admissions work. Fletcher applicants do such interesting things and write about them in compelling ways. A day at home with a pile of files is a guarantee that I’ll know more at the end of the day than I did at the beginning. What could be better than that?