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Stasia Walmsley
Welcome to the Providence College Podcast. I'm Stasia Wamsley. It's mid-December here in Friar Town, and we're in the thick of admission season today. We've asked two guests from the Office of Admission to join us to talk about recruiting the next class of Providence College.

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Stasia Walmsley
That's the class of 2028.

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Stasia Walmsley
Welcome to Mike Spann and Liz Ward. Thank you so much for being here.

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Micahel Splann
Thank you so much for having us.

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Liz Ward
Thanks for having us.

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Stasia Walmsley
you've both been working at admission for some time now. And I wanted to ask you, knowing what you both know today, what would you go back and tell your 17 year old self about applying for college and deciding where to go to college?

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Micahel Splann
Yeah, you know, I would tell I would tell my 17 year old self, first and foremost to relax and take a breather in the whole process. But of course, when it comes to finding the right school for you, I think organization is key and specifically what I wish I had done would have been to make a list of all the things write out an actual list of all the things that are important to me in a school.

00;01;06;00 - 00;01;26;11
Micahel Splann
And then as I'm visiting schools, you know, see what what boxes each school checks and see what school offers the most of what I'm looking for. I think that when I was going through the college process, I know I applied to about 13 schools, which is a lot. And it sort of just came down to where I had the best feeling.

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Micahel Splann
And I wasn't really organized with all of my thoughts and sort of opinions on the schools that I'd applied to. So then when it came time to make a decision, I felt as though I had to go back and visit everywhere and try to get all of that information again, because I hadn't done that upfront. So hopefully for students who are going through this process now, they have that information and they have at least taken some time to write it down.

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Micahel Splann
And then also the only other thing that I would tell my my former self is to know that admission offices are accessible. They're not scary places. Your counselors are not shouldn't be looked at as intimidating. We are here to help counselors, not just a random job title that we hold. That is what we do is are here to counsel you and help you through this process.

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Micahel Splann
So it's what I would tell myself if I could go back.

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Stasia Walmsley
That's great. How about you, Liz?

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Liz Ward
I think that's actually a perfect segue way to what I was going to say to my 17 year old self, reminding that there's a person on the other side of this process and that person is there to help you and know that you have support outside of your high school. Yes, probably within your high school, too. But also on the other side from the college piece of it.

00;02;29;19 - 00;02;53;07
Liz Ward
I truthfully would go back and tell my 17 year old self, too, to actually hear the words I was saying when talking about the college process. Everybody teased me up until the end of April that they all knew I was coming to Providence before I did. It was always the school I referenced back to. And to actually hear myself and know that the decision was made prior to me actually coming to terms with it.

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Liz Ward
So to trust yourself and trust the process. But organizations definitely going to help in that trust piece of it.

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Stasia Walmsley
And I should mention that both of you are Providence College alumni, so you're able to offer that perspective, certainly to students who are thinking about coming to PC.

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Stasia Walmsley
I'm wondering if you could also share potentially as we think about what types of things students might write down or questions that get answered. What are some of the common questions that you're hearing from students and families? Is there anything that you're hearing this year in particular that it's important for people to know about PCC?

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Micahel Splann
Yeah, so we of course get a lot of questions that are specific to students academic majors. I think I think the the biggest thing that students are looking for in the college process is to hear from current students and hear about the experiences that current students are having. So telling students things about the research that students are doing and study abroad, opportunities and specific faculty members that are teaching specific classes.

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Micahel Splann
You know, I think what's unique about about Providence and I'll probably touch upon this too, are some of the unique academic classes that you have the ability to take care that you might not get certain places. So we are talking to families about that in terms of the admissions process itself. There are a ton of students. They're asking questions about specifics on the Common app, the the supplemental essay, how important that is, how important their test scores are to submit.

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Micahel Splann
I'll take this opportunity to just reinforce that we have been test optional here, Providence for many, many years. And so we the SATs Act exams are not a huge part of our process. So we're constantly reminding students about that because a lot of students have stress over whether or not to send their test scores to us as part of the application process.

00;04;46;24 - 00;05;15;21
Micahel Splann
Answering those types of questions, answering questions about how many merit scholarships to offer and how a student qualifies for merit scholarships, are there separate essays or everything reminding students that all students are automatically considered for merit scholarships and for for all those types of things? And so, you know, we're answering those types of questions all the time. We hope our hope is that students take the opportunity to visit us and families come and visit us and come and see us.

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Micahel Splann
I don't think that there's I don't think there's a better way to get to know Providence and to come and spend some time on campus. Hopefully, you get the chance while you're here to meet some of our current students, ask them questions. I can, of course, tell you all of my favorite college stories from when I graduated in 2019, but that's not as helpful as a student who is here today.

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Micahel Splann
So make sure you come to campus and chat with our students. Our students, for the most part, whether they're on a mission ambassadors or Friars Club or any of these other clubs that help us out so much in the mission office, there have a wealth of knowledge and they're always going to be candid and open and honest about their experience here.

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Micahel Splann
So that's our best advice usually to families.

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Stasia Walmsley
And because you mentioned it, I was curious, what are you telling students who are wondering whether or not they should submit their city and A.C.T. scores?

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Liz Ward
We my new favorite phrase is to say that we've been test optional since before these applicants were born. So which was a little disheartening to come to terms with. But these students, when your scores fit your academic record, your transcript, if it's that supplemental support, then it makes sense to submit them truthfully. My first question is always, Are you proud of your test score or not?

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Liz Ward
And if a student says no or hesitates, leave it out of the process. We only want to review things that you are most proud of. Put your best foot forward. So if it's something that falls in line with your transcript and academic performance in the classroom, great. Go ahead. If not, it is one less piece of the puzzle.

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Liz Ward
Let all of the other great parts about yourself shine through instead.

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Stasia Walmsley
That's terrific. And I imagine parents have questions that are very similar to what students are asking.

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Stasia Walmsley
Have you seen that parents, over your time working in admission, are more involved in the process now? And how do you how do we as an institution include families as part of the decision making process?

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Liz Ward
a really good question to ask students and parents definitely are doing the process together. I have seen an increase in parent outreach. We encourage it from the that we want parents to be knowledgeable too, but I don't want to say discourage it, but also want to empower the students to drive the process themselves. So it's finding that right balance of we recognize that students are in school all day and their parents may be more able to reach out to us during working hours.

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Liz Ward
So that makes sense. But we also want the students to take ownership of the process that being said, we are there to support the parents too. We have parent specific webinars. There's parent agenda items, different programing events. We have our parent newsletter that can go out. So there are places for parents to be involved. Absolutely. But we also want the students to to go through this themselves as well.

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Liz Ward
They're there to guide and help support. But it is the student going to college next.

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Stasia Walmsley
Absolutely. I imagine both parents and students have lots of questions about some of our new programs and our new school. Nursing and health sciences are two new majors at the institution. In fact, this fall was the first class for those majors at P.S. ever.

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Stasia Walmsley
Right. So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit on the admissions side, if there's anything different or unique about the process when it comes to those two new majors? And with this new School of nursing in health sciences

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Stasia Walmsley
for sure.

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Liz Ward
Nursing is the bigger exception. It is the only outlier in our review process in that it goes through its own individual committee review process. So every other program is looked at within the context of the entire applicant pool. Nursing does get pulled out and go through. It's its own process there, no matter what. We are looking for that academic preparation for Providence College, ensuring that students will be successful in our core curriculum here on campus, knowing that they're going to going to take classes outside of their major area.

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Liz Ward
But with nursing especially wanting to make sure that that math and science preparation is there, that they're ready to jump into that curriculum right away. All of our other programs. So health sciences falls more into that. Everybody else pool still, that preparation for a program, you don't want to jump into a chemistry curriculum, never having taken chemistry before.

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Liz Ward
So it's always that that overall preparation there with our nursing students, if there's any opportunity to show that fit to major, that's going to be really helpful in that process there. It is going to be a little bit more competitive from the admissions side, just given that it is a set number of students, we can ultimately enroll for those lab spaces, classroom spaces, things like that.

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Liz Ward
So it is slightly more competitive, but that overall Providence College student is still who we're looking for.

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Stasia Walmsley
And can we share how many students are we're looking for in the nursing

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Liz Ward
Sorry. Yes. Looking to enroll 75 students moving forward.

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Stasia Walmsley
Got it. And is that the same in the health sciences programs as well, or

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Liz Ward
more wiggle room there. So definitely 50 at the onset. And then students can change their major into health sciences, whereas nursing you cannot it is that true? Direct entry program. So if you want to study nursing, you have to apply as nursing student, whereas health sciences does have a little bit more of that flexibility.

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Liz Ward
So definitely 50 ultimately up to 75 as well.

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Stasia Walmsley
That's great. Thank you so much for providing that clarity.

00;10;31;22 - 00;10;58;28
Stasia Walmsley
I know it's so new that we're all kind of learning as we as we welcome these students to campus. I'm wondering if you could talk. I know that you you both have experiences as alums, but I wonder if you could talk a little bit about when students are thinking about the right fit. Is is Providence College where they ultimately will feel the most comfortable, both on the academic side and on the student life side?

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Stasia Walmsley
What are some of the things you tell students about what their academic experience will be and then ultimately what the the living part of their experience might be?

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Micahel Splann
Yeah, absolutely. I think primarily academically, it's about our size. Our size is a big advantage for students. And this is something that I know that we all talk about when we're on the road and we try to emphasize when students are here on campus, is that given that we are just over 4000 undergraduate students in total, we're able to keep our class sizes to about 20 students.

00;11;31;01 - 00;12;04;12
Micahel Splann
On average, we have a 12 to 1 student to faculty ratio. So what students can expect from us academically, and it's something that we hear a lot from students that they appreciate. And it's one of the reasons why Providence kind of stands out to them as a school is that we're able to offer those smaller class sizes, even in the larger liberal arts core curriculum courses, things like development of Western civilization, those classes, you might have a big lecture once or twice a week, and then you might have a small seminar where that that class actually breaks down into a small group once a week as well, where it's just a small group of students

00;12;04;12 - 00;12;22;00
Micahel Splann
and professors sitting around a round table and discussing the material. And so that smaller, personalized academic experience, you know, if you're if you I tell students it's sort of jokingly, but if you're looking for the kind of school where you can show up in the back of a 300 person lecture hall and fall asleep and never get to know a professor, you know, we're not going to be the right school for you.

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Micahel Splann
Your professors are going to want to get to know you on the first day. Right. And so so that that definitely provides value. I think in addition to that, academically speaking, our liberal arts core curriculum is is so strong and it gives students the opportunity to go beyond just becoming a practitioner and going beyond just becoming really good at one thing that you're studying.

00;12;42;01 - 00;13;15;23
Micahel Splann
So maybe you're a finance major and you're certainly going to leave here with such a strong business core and a strong knowledge of of the financial world and the ability to enter the workforce and be extremely competitive and in that market. But what you're also going to be developing along the way through its core curriculum are strong writing skills, strong oral communication skills, the ability to discuss and debate ideas in a professional setting, the ability to public speak and present and be eloquent and articulate your thoughts in both writing and orally.

00;13;15;23 - 00;13;43;02
Micahel Splann
So. So those are big advantages for our students. And I think something that we definitely emphasize when we're on the road from a student life perspective, you know, we we call ourselves the Friar family. It sounds a little bit cliche until I think you step on campus and you see it. But, you know, all of our students, you'd be hard pressed to find a Providence College student that just simply gets up in the morning, goes to class, maybe goes to the dining hall and then back to their dorm all night and never leaves.

00;13;43;02 - 00;14;08;21
Micahel Splann
Our students are very active, very involved on campus, you know, with over 100 something clubs to join the really is something for everybody. And so, you know, maybe you'd like to plan events and something like the board of programmers is a good fit for you or maybe you want to get involved in certain special interest groups, whether that be through the Board of Multicultural Student Affairs, where there are specific groups for students of racial and ethnic groups.

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Micahel Splann
There's an organization of Latin American students and even Gaelic society and these types of things. So, you know, whatever it is that most interests you, wherever you're going to find that community in that home. And our students have a have an ability to find that here. And our students also, I would say, spend a lot of time downtown at the American Pavilion cheering on the friars, too, as well as here on campus, cheering on our other athletic teams.

00;14;32;29 - 00;14;59;09
Micahel Splann
So that's the last thing I would probably close with in terms of, you know, student life that that makes Providence unique is we are being such a small school. It's unique that we have such big school sports, you know, to be just over 4000 undergraduate students, but compete in a conference like the Big East and to have a team that is consistently making it to national to the NCAA Tournament, for example, is pretty special.

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Micahel Splann
So a lot going on in our town academically. And from a student life perspective.

00;15;04;26 - 00;15;27;20
Stasia Walmsley
Awesome. Thank you. I am going to change gears just a little bit and talk a little bit about paying for college. Obviously, a very important part of the process and helping students and families to understand what that's like. So as we think about this year in particular, we know that there is there are some changes going on with the FAFSA.

00;15;27;27 - 00;15;39;22
Stasia Walmsley
Right. So I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what families should know about the financial aid process in general as we're as we go through this admissions cycle?

00;15;39;27 - 00;15;57;16
Liz Ward
Absolutely. This year has definitely brought on a lot of changes in the world of college admission. The FAFSA being part of that. And it's always dependent on the time of year how that conversation is going when meeting students in the fall and kind of having that broader discussion at a college fair, for example, you don't know as much.

00;15;57;16 - 00;16;18;23
Liz Ward
So it's just giving more of that overview of the difference of a merit scholarship versus need based financial aid and making them aware that both are available through Providence. Every institution is going to view things differently. Are they going to put more into the merit piece or more into the need based financial aid? We are need blind through the admission process.

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Liz Ward
So finances, personal finances do not come into play for all of our domestic students. They do for our international applicants. So that is slightly different there. Our international team is NEET aware, so the FAFSA and see us as profile are important factors in that review there. But overall, as these changes come, deadlines are going to be incredibly important.

00;16;41;14 - 00;17;07;26
Liz Ward
I appreciate that we work together with the Office of Financial Aid, but sometimes I really appreciate that we work separately too, so their office is steadily reviewing all of this. See us as profiles that have been submitted at this point. And as FAFSA becomes more available and families can fill that out, making sure that that's done on a timely manner is going to be an important factor as finances continue throughout the the admitted student conversations.

00;17;07;29 - 00;17;29;21
Liz Ward
It's all about that relationship building. As much as I referenced earlier that admission counselors are people. So are our financial aid counselors. We can help. So far, only so far, I should say. But reaching out to that Office of Financial Aid and asking questions, whether it is a potential appeal process or just learning, it's all about asking questions.

00;17;29;21 - 00;17;45;01
Liz Ward
And we're here to help families through each of those stages. May not always be the perfect answer at the end of the day, but we are here to help families understand each of the differences of whether it is that merit based conversation or that need based financial aid side of things too.

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Stasia Walmsley
And finances are part of the right fit too, right? It's part of the whole equation. So we're closing in on the next phase of our our cycle, right? So there we have regular decision and early decision too, coming up. Great. Okay, great. Thanks. And I just was wondering, could you describe the difference between those two? And then just remind anybody who's listening what those deadlines are.

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Liz Ward
I am going to put a plug in. We do have a webinar set for January 3rd to talk through early more so regular decision, but we'll tackle early decision two in that conversation as well. And that webinar will specifically be for students who are still learning about Providence and deciding if regular decision may be an appropriate admission cycle for them.

00;18;35;09 - 00;18;48;09
Liz Ward
It will be for students who may be reevaluating some of their college list after going through an early review process with other schools. So looking forward to that. I will also be part of that. So it's a selfish plug,

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Stasia Walmsley
Great.

00;18;49;28 - 00;18;57;04
Liz Ward
the difference between the two. Both have January 15th deadlines, so students need to submit their application by then.

00;18;57;06 - 00;19;25;04
Liz Ward
Regular decision works very similarly to early action where it's that non-binding process go through the same admission review, application review. But the ultimate enrollment piece is what's going to be different. So with with regular decision, that non-binding piece, students who are admitted would have until May 1st to ultimately choose where they would like to go to school. So they can still weigh options between different institutions with early decision two.

00;19;25;11 - 00;19;46;15
Liz Ward
That's a great option for students who really find Providence to be the right fit. They're ready to make that commitment and ready to lock themselves in if admitted through early decision to. Those students are already part of the class of 2028 and we're excited to welcome them here in the fall. So a little bit of that difference piece, regular decision, nonbinding early decision to binding.

00;19;46;15 - 00;20;05;08
Stasia Walmsley
and once a student receives their invitation through their their portal and their invitation packet in the mail, what are the opportunities as to for those students who maybe are not in the ed the early decision pools.

00;20;05;16 - 00;20;18;02
Stasia Walmsley
Right. Who are still trying to decide between Providence College and maybe another institution? What are some of the things they can do? What are some of the events that are coming up that are happening on campus that we're planning for for those students?

00;20;18;12 - 00;20;39;16
Micahel Splann
Absolutely. So the biggest one I would talk about first and foremost would be our early admitted student day. This is always an incredible day for us. It's one of our favorite days in the office because not only does it include an on campus program, but it includes attending a basketball game as well. So that's coming up in February, on February 17th, to Saturday.

00;20;39;16 - 00;21;01;29
Micahel Splann
And so that'll be an all day program. And it's nice this year. It's going to start with a mass at St Thomas for the Class of 2028 for those who like to attend and then there will be a portion that will take place in Peterson with lunch and there'll be a resource fair where they can talk to a ton of different offices and resources and student clubs and organizations and a lot of different campus partners during that resource fair.

00;21;02;05 - 00;21;18;27
Micahel Splann
And then there'll be an academic session that they can attend, which will be specific for their major, where they'll hear from a member of the faculty within their academic major, and then they'll be some other sessions in the afternoon that they can attend as well before they head downtown and enjoy the basketball games. So that's a really exciting day for us.

00;21;18;27 - 00;21;39;21
Micahel Splann
So for students who are admitted through the early action process, that is an opportunity for them to come back to campus and spend a day here and a night down at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. So that's an exciting one. We have our general admitted student Day in April, so that that one's very exciting as well. And that will be a little bit of a different program.

00;21;39;21 - 00;22;04;18
Micahel Splann
It's a little bit longer. It's it takes place on campus, probably a little bit more detail oriented. It's really that last push in April, before that May 1st enrollment deadline to help students make that final decision. So that'll be coming up in April. And then we're excited as well that for our early decision, students who were already invited through early Decision one, they have already received their decisions.

00;22;04;18 - 00;22;12;25
Micahel Splann
They know that they are attending Providence College, they have already enrolled, will be having a celebration for them as well. That will be coming up in January.

00;22;12;25 - 00;22;17;02
Stasia Walmsley
And what is the date of the the event in April?

00;22;17;05 - 00;22;20;02
Micahel Splann
The event in April is April 1313.

00;22;20;02 - 00;22;29;28
Stasia Walmsley
13th. Okay, great. Terrific. So the early admitted student day, that's February 17th. And then the the other opportunity would be on April 13th.

00;22;29;28 - 00;22;31;05
Stasia Walmsley
That's terrific. Yeah.

00;22;31;05 - 00;22;41;11
Micahel Splann
And all of that information will be in the student's portal as well. So for students who are admitted to Providence, they will have a link in their admission portal that will allow them to register for those events.

00;22;41;14 - 00;23;04;10
Liz Ward
There's a couple of other smaller opportunities to specifically for admitted students. Fryer for a day is an opportunity to shadow one of our current students in class eating Raymond Dining Hall really experience life as a a fryer for the day and then we have admitted student tours that will include a welcome from a member of our campus community and then a general campus tour afterwards as well.

00;23;04;10 - 00;23;20;03
Stasia Walmsley
That's terrific. And again, all of that information is available in their portal. So for some, for some students who have applied without necessarily coming to campus and this is an opportunity for them to visit, I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the city of Providence.

00;23;20;03 - 00;23;29;08
Stasia Walmsley
So what's your like what is the one thing people should do while they're here? What would what would your one thing be that they can't miss in Providence

00;23;29;12 - 00;23;53;17
Liz Ward
If it's during basketball season, I think both of us would encourage trying to catch a game. If not my personal favorite restaurant. Well, a couple different options to choose from. If you're looking to stay right near campus and kind of see what students may do, it would be taking a walk over to the abbey and enjoying a burger or a chicken sandwich or something there, if it's more downtown focused.

00;23;53;21 - 00;24;03;05
Liz Ward
My personal favorite, I would take a little bit of a pricier meal at times, but Hemingways is one of my favorite restaurants for a real special celebratory occasion.

00;24;03;05 - 00;24;11;17
Stasia Walmsley
Yeah, and great seafood, right? I mean, if you're going to be in the Ocean State, if you have the opportunity, Hemingway's was great. And then But the burgers at the Abbey are hard to pass.

00;24;11;17 - 00;24;39;17
Micahel Splann
Absolutely. I will have to say that I think if you're taking a trip to Providence, especially if you've never been in Providence, you can't leave without going and seeing Federal Hill and going to any of the restaurants on Federal Hill. It's it's an amazing sort of Little Italy, what we call it here in Providence. And these restaurants are very, very old and have been open for a long time and have been just making incredible Italian food for a long time.

00;24;39;17 - 00;24;52;20
Micahel Splann
Some of my favorites would be Massimo or PANAMENO or Constantino. So any of those. But any you can't go wrong. Any Italian restaurant that you can find on Federal Hill is definitely worth checking out.

00;24;52;20 - 00;25;04;25
Stasia Walmsley
Those are excellent suggestions. Thank you so much. Thanks, both of you for for joining us today. This is wonderful and thanks for all your work that you are doing recruiting this next class of 2028.

00;25;04;25 - 00;25;14;06
Stasia Walmsley
It's it's it's an exciting time, certainly, as we're looking forward to to bringing in these new students. You know, thank you so much for having us.

00;25;14;06 - 00;25;15;13
Stasia Walmsley
Absolutely.