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• Andrea
  

  August 17th, 2009

  Introvert or extrovert, I think independence is key in the college search process.

  Considering all the resources that are available (college websites, collegeboard.com, college guides in bookstores) I think most students are able to conduct their own college search and draft a list of schools that are good for them. If introverts, as you hypothesize, tend to disengage when everybody and their neighbor is curious about the process, then that is one more reason for them to lay off! Since college is for them, they should be the ones leading the search.

• vandy80&13
  

  August 18th, 2009

  Thom, I was struck with your use of introvert/extrovert based on Meyers Briggs. In case you missed the following article, I think there is some room for thought about the Coping Introvert and the Introverted College Applicant..question being what does that introverted kind of personality need to fully and effectively engage in the tasks of conveying Self to Others at a crucial juncture where one is evaluated for “fit” by college admissions staff members, teachers and reference letter writers.

  you were talking about introversion and the college application process…I digress. I found this article from Wm and Mary helpful a decade back when I had child, (now a highly socialized and outgoing college graduate) who spent hours in solitary study and reflection at times in early years. His personality was more guarded and he was not as good at building communication lines with extroverted chatty teachers as a child, but as he approached college application season..he became an effective communicator. I would conjecture that many students entering Vanderbilt had hobbies/interests growing up that involved mastery of certain skills that were enhanced by hours alone in intense study and reflection. Solitude can be a great foundation for expansive learning. I also think that managing alone time and even managing outright loneliness are related topics and skills that are important to the college years.

  I can’t put it in academic phrases but a good college like Vanderbilt is a place where the introverted personality will bloom and get super focused, super actualized and super fulfilled, and where some time alone is sanctioned and blessed and viewed as productive and necessary–solo time that was viewed with ambivalence by some adults when the same student was younger…is sanctioned in college as “good work.”. It is a place where extroverts and introverts will both thrive and grow and be understood well by faculty. Lunch time might still be too noisy and chaotic for some, dorm life can be “overload” for some students more than others, but the classroom at a great college is a safe harbor where either personality orientation is engaged and understood by a faculty that truly can differentiate and appreciate differences in orientation and interpersonal boundaries and style.

  https://cfge.wm.edu/Gifted%20Educ%20Artices/Introversion.html
  “Introversion: The Often Forgotten Factor Impacting the Gifted”

• Michael Gluckstern
  

  August 31st, 2009

  Finding a college that fits the personalisty of the student is the key and there are many school characteristics to consider before choosing the college that is right for them (no matter how much of an introvert or extrovert they are). In the end, it’s about where the student feels at home, feels like this is where I belong, which is why campus visits play such an important role in the final decision of where they choose to go to college.

• anon in dallas
  

  October 16th, 2009

  much of what you said makes sense to me and, in my opinion, is not only an interesting point of discussion but a very necessary one. the college application process is a huge part of a person’s life in these times and yet, there seems to be very little talk of how stressful a process this can truly be for some students.

  my father lied to people we knew and said that i had been accepted to this school or that when i had not even applied. my parents never asked me about college, never mentioned the SAT, never really helped me to decide if i was able to attend college. financially, i would need help. emotionally, i wasn’t sure i could handle it. i couldn’t handle the stress.

  these are the kinds of taboo topics i wish were discussed with high school students. i wish the stress was talked about openly and often.

  being paralyzed in fear and having no one with which to discuss these things, i never applied to a college. instead i went to a community college.

  ever since i’ve been told that my dreams of becoming a doctor were never to come true.

  “no one wants a community college student.”

  the discussion is important. understanding why we feel the way we do and knowing that we aren’t alone is important. colleges reaching out to the introverts is important.

  yes, in the end we all will have to get it together, step up, and apply ourselves. in the end we will all have to seek out the right school for our personalities. but in the beginning, i think it’s okay to say, “This is scary.”