Your School...in 500 words.

It’s the time of year when admissions directors are hounded by any form of media where their school is represented to update their stats, university/college lists, and data. It’s a tiresome job but a necessary evil. What showed in my inbox recently, however, was the opportunity to join a new site but they wanted pictures and a 500 word description immediately. (I’m talkin’ to you, John Williamson!)

Well, this was an unexpected hassle as when I looked on my computer I found I had only 50, 100, and 350 word descriptions. This isn’t always the easiest of tasks. You need to cover the basics but the basics can sound so much like every other school. The goal is to differentiate but not at the expense of essential information…and all in 50, 100 or 500 words.

As I considered this new hassle of a task, I heard in the back of my head the voice of a dear friend to many of us. Holly Treat, of Camille M. Bertram Educational Consultants, wrote a great blog entry this spring questioning the methodology of school rankings and the boiling down of great institutions into quantifiable data, and admonished us that, “To do so would be to quantify an experience.” Thanks for the important reminder, Holly. We do indeed offer more than can be said in 500 words.

(NOTE: I have added the Bertram Blog, "From the Quad," to the column on the right of this blog. It’s worth a review.)

Mission

Mission: whatever. Does your school have one? Does it include any of the following words: diversity, whole child, prepare, global, serve, preparation, community, life-long, or excellence? Don't they all? It's the rare school that has a profound mission but they are far and few between. Any great examples anyone? Your own school? But even the solid ones do us in admissions what good? When was the last time you were asked about your mission or to name your mission in a conversation with a parent or applicant? It's about so much more than that. Our work is about the importance of family/school long-term relationships, multi-year investments, and the education of children. It's not about pizza or cars or jeans, people. All that is done in our schools everyday cannot be boiled down to a sentence. And it shouldn't be. Mission: whatever. Snore.

Enjoy the following video. It's entertaining. But at the end of the day, I don't think it's for us.