Meet an Admissions Counselor: Scott Alexander

We’re bringing back our popular series, Meet an Admissions Counselor, where we introduce students and families to a different member of the College Coach admissions team. Drop in to see what we’re reading, where we went to school, and our strategies for beginning the college essay. As you work with us to find a college admissions consultant who best fits your needs or the needs of your child, we will help you consider the personality and working styles that will bring out the best in you or your student. Today we introduce Scott Alexander.   What would you say to your high school self if you could coach them through the research and application process? What would you have done differently? In retrospect, I was fortunate to land where I did for my undergraduate education, especially considering what I know about the college admissions process now. As a first-generation college student, I was unfamiliar with the process and had one brief meeting with my overworked and under-resourced public-school counselor. My advice would be to identify someone as a guide to navigate through the college search and application processes. Maybe then, my college list would have broadened beyond the alma maters of my favorite teachers and those institutions with recognizable names within my region. Where did you go to college and what did you study? Arriving as a chemistry major at Bowdoin College, my thinking evolved after experiencing the weekly six-hour labs during my first semester. Exploring classes in French and sociology, I landed with a major in government and legal studies and a minor in theater. Here’s my joke about my undergraduate degree: There’s a lot of acting in politics, and a lot of politics in the arts. They go hand in hand. I later earned my master’s degree at Wesleyan University, where I focused on social sciences. What was your favorite thing about college? Was anything very different from what you expected? For me, college was an opportunity for social mobility: a chance to change my socioeconomic class and shift the direction of my life path. Beyond that, my expectations for college were limited to the media depictions of the U.S. college experience—which rarely aligned with my own college experiences. Living in a residential college community, you are surrounded by people all day, every day. That level of intensity was my favorite thing about college as it encouraged relationship building, both inside and outside of the classroom. Where did you work in admissions and/or counseling? One of my undergraduate work-study positions was in the office of admissions as a campus tour guide and senior interviewer. Those experiences reinforced that a career in college admissions was a natural complement to my interests in policy and storytelling. I began my admissions career at Connecticut College, leaving the Eastern Time Zone for the first time during a recruitment trip to the Midwest. By the time I departed fourteen years later, I visited half the U.S. states and over fifty countries on six continents. After that, I returned to Maine for the next decade, working in senior admission dean roles at two other NESCAC schools: Colby College and Bates College. Before joining Bright Horizons College Coach, I read first-year and transfer applications for Brandeis University and Brown University. What aspect of the college admissions and/or counseling process do you most enjoy working on? I love encouraging students to think about the entire college application as story: the transcript tells a story about who they are as a student; their activities tell us a story about what they value and how they spend their time; and their application tells us a story about what type of environment they grew up in. Through their essays, students tell a story in their own voice and showcase their writing ability. Finally, they may have the opportunity to have stories told about them by others through letters of recommendation. When constructing the college application, I encourage students to be mindful of what stories are being told already and where there are opportunities for additional storytelling. This way, the entire application captures the complexity of who they are. -- How would you describe your counseling style? My counseling style embraces the inquiry method: asking questions, exploring natural curiosities, engaging the learning process, and encouraging discovery. My approach is student-centered, leveraging the college search and admissions processes as an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills during a formative life experience. How do you guide and nurture students through the college list process, from initial research to narrowing the final list? When developing the college list, I invite students to reflect upon their education to identify how they learn best, whether that’s a particular setting, teaching style, or subject area. Then, we discuss initial college preferences starting with location and size of school, knowing that these are likely to evolve as the student progresses throughout their college search process and they are exposed to more institutions. Along the way, I encourage students to dig deeper, looking at a school’s pedagogy (how they teach and how they learn) and gaining a sense of place. So, when a student is ready to apply, there’s a whole set of schools that align with who they are and what they want to do. What in your mind makes a good college essay? In my college admissions career, I read 27,000 undergraduate applications from every corner of the United States and over 150 countries. So, when it comes to the college essay, I know that there’s no one topic that you need to write about or one way to write it. Essays that work are germane to that student; only that student could tell that story. There’s a great essay inside each student just waiting to emerge. -- Where are you from, where have you lived, and where do you live now? I am a Mainer; it’s where I grew up and it’s where I live now. During college, I spent a semester in Washington, D.C., studying public law and experiencing the richness of the nation’s capital. Immediately after college, I lived in New London, Connecticut. No matter where I’ve lived, a body of water, most often the ocean, has never been more than a few miles away. What are you reading, watching, and/or listening to lately? What’s on my nightstand depends upon what’s next in my book club rotations. One book club flip-flops between fiction and non-fiction each month, while two others cater to specific genres like queer and horror. Some recent favorites include There, There by Tommy Orange, This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. What do you do for fun or to relax? I love to travel. Combining my professional and personal experiences, I have visited more than seventy countries on six continents. Someday, I will make it to Antarctica (that was an impossible pitch as a college recruitment trip). Behind this desire to travel is a celebration of a former colleague’s mantra: welcome in a new place every year. A frequent travel destination is magnificent New York City. During those stints, my itinerary is jam-packed with theater. There’s something uniquely special about watching professionals showcase their craft in real time. What are some of your interests—things that fascinate you or send you down internet rabbit holes, or things you love to learn more about? I am a party planner, creating space for folks to gather even if there’s no traditional occasion to celebrate. During June, there’s a weekly backyard movie showing for Pride month. October means it’s time for “Crocktober,” allowing others to showcase their crockpot culinary skills. Friendsgiving is a yearly staple, and other past events include a tarot reading, a murder-mystery whodunit, and an at-home escape room. Do you do any volunteer work? If so, what, and are there certain causes that are close to your heart? My dream job is to be a philanthropist. I focus my annual giving on educational institutions, public radio, and political action, if that’s particular social justice non-profits or political candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. To learn more about Scott, visit his bio.