Tech receives as many as 12,000 applications in a year. Almost all will come before Katie Faussemagne and Jerry Hitt. Hitt is the longest tenured member of the staff, joining Tech in 1965 and serving as director of Admissions from 1968 to 1991. Faussemagne, an adviser, arrived in 2000. While working feverishly in front of the Jan. 15 application deadline, they spoke about the admission process, the department’s history and the mountain of essays they’ve read.
1. How is the process going this year?
Faussemagne: Last year we had a little more than 11,000 applicants. We admitted a little more than 5,000 and had a freshman class of about 2,600. We’re trying to stay at that number, but we’re already up 25 percent. Anything can make those numbers go up and down, like how we did in the NCAA tournament. An applicant wrote the only reason she knew about Tech was Paul Hewitt and the Final Four team six years ago.
2. How has admissions changed in your time here?
Faussemagne: When I came, my main goal was to work with female recruitment. I did a lot of work [as a college student] with fantasy theme analysis and how movies create fantasies among women. Disney has created this “someday my prince will come” theory of life, and that grew up with a generation. At Tech we decided to really go after those women we thought would be admissible, to work with them to get them to apply. Women want to go into a major where they’re going to make a difference, and Tech has a variety of programs where they can do that.
Hitt: When I started, there was the director, the associate director and one counselor. I never had more than three assistants. And socially we played a little harder than they do these days. We used to have a skybox overlooking Grant Field and the skyline of Atlanta. There was a long table, and it’d be covered with [application] papers. Now it’s our first year paperless.
3. How is it reading essays on the computer?
Hitt: The computer went down one day; there’s nothing you can do but go home. But I don’t have to know much. You get in, click around and close it down. I’d rather read off of paper. The computer puts more strain on your eyes.
4. Have the applicants changed much over the years?
Faussemagne: Every year I’m amazed at what these kids are doing inside and outside the classroom. They’re doing research and missionary work. When I first started out, volunteering you would see a little, but now it’s a mainstay.
5. Has the applicants’ writing changed?
Faussemagne: The essays are much more imaginative. They haven’t gotten better or worse with grammar and punctuation.
Hitt: I think the quality’s better. Some of them you read, and, boy, you get a good feeling about them.
6. Are there any crucial mistakes you see a lot?
Faussemagne: If you cannot form a sentence, answer a question or are completely off subject, it is going to hurt.
7. What are some of the most memorable essays you’ve read?
Faussemagne: There is one that’s from a local student this year that had me crying I was laughing so hard. By the time I finished it, without looking at his scores, I e-mailed it to our director and said, “You have got to read this.” There are ones that bring us to tears. The hardest are the ones where students are dealing with severe medical issues or family problems. We’re not grading you on the experience. What we’re looking for is if you can express yourself.
Hitt: We got one that’s the least interesting. Before she started her essay, she wrote that she had her mother read it, and her mother offered her $100 if she had the guts to send it. She made all kinds of grammatical errors.
8. What do you like most about the essays?
Faussemagne: The essays are the most fun part of the application. Because we can’t do interviews, it’s the one time students can express themselves. The essay can push you over the fence. I’ve read essays where I’ve said, “I want to follow them all the way through college.”
Hitt: What we’re looking for is what passions they have. A lot just drone on and rehash their activities.
9. What makes for a good essay question?
Faussemagne: I don’t like essay questions where you can predict what [the applicants] are going to say. This year’s question is, “Explain the aspects of your academic or extracurricular background that are especially important to you.” I like this because it’s so much of an open format, to give us a sense of who you are. There are some weird questions out there. Rhodes one time said, “Take an ant, an hourglass and a match and end the essay with, ‘This is how I saved the world.’”
Hitt: One year we asked what they would do if they took a year off between high school and college. Well, they were all going to go to West Africa and save the world.
10. What do you like to read for pleasure?
Faussemagne: I’ve got a 5-year-old, so I’m reading all children’s books right now.
Hitt: I like Smithsonian magazine. One book I liked a lot was Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation.
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