Miasmatic Review: Bradley University Situation update.

June 28, 2007

Bradley University Situation update.

Just a quick update on the Ex-Military not welcome at Bradley University. Unfortunately for me, Troy has gone on vacation and isn’t due back for a while. Thus I can’t get the name of the person who spoke with or the phone number he called to see if I could talk to someone there about the situation. At this time no one has responded to my original inquiry to Bradley’s undergraduate admissions using the contact page on their website. At this time I have not received a response back.

HOWEVER! I did get a comment in the original post from Tom Richmond Director of Admissions Marketing and Communications at Bradley. He states:

I work in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Bradley Univeristy and I am glad to comment on this posting.
While I can not talk about individual applicants, I can comment on our admissions policies.

Admissions decisions are based upon a professional review of a complete student record with the intent to determine whether a student can succeed at the univeristy. Most of this decision is based upon the review of the student's academic record.

A variety of other factors are considered to help learn about a student's motivation, social skills, time management skills, goals, and a variety of important intangibles that can lead to college success.

Military service is one intangible that will never be looked down upon at Bradley Univeristy. In fact, service to our country is considered an assett in the application process and recent military veterans have been admitted.

I'm glad to take this opportunity to help clear up any misunderstandings.
We welcome applications from anyone who feels they might benefit from the Bradley experience.

He also sent me an e-mail via the account I use on here. Not the one I sent the original inquiry on. I wanted to make sure my spam filter didn’t eat the response. Now I responded to Tom and explained that Troy and his mother are not the types that make up stories or are prone to lying. In fact I’d have to say they pretty much are some of the most honest folk I know. Good stock in that family if you ask me. Since I am an objective individual, I’m willing to concede that possibly there was a miscommunication or that someone in that office blurted out the first thing that came across their mind in a stressful situation. I just don’t know yet. Until I can get the information from Troy, I’m kind of stuck in a holding pattern.

A couple of commenters did pose questions to Tom, and I forwarded them on to him. From Laughing Wolf:

Quick question Tom: If what you say is true, then how do you respond to the following quote from someone in admissions: “Because you were in the military, you won’t fit in here.” This would seem to directly contravene what you say, so which is it? No spin, straight answer.

And from H~, which if I am not mistaken is Hubba Mother of Boudicca.

Tom, I do believe the intangibles mentioned "A variety of other factors are considered to help learn about a student's motivation, social skills, time management skills, goals, and a variety of important intangibles that can lead to college success." is learned better by serving in the military than any college campus.
Excluding those factors this young man is left to rely on his grades for admission. As you are well aware when people mature they become better students. My guess is he's matured more than most of your students in the same age bracket, but I don't know the man only his willingness to serve our country. I applaud your university for admitting those who make it possible for us to continue opening educational opportunities for all.

You mentioned you have admitted veterans recently. Do you know the percentage of veterans currently accepted to those denied admission?
In advance, thank you for the follow-up.

I’ve forwarded both along to him just in case he doesn’t go back and read the original comments… or that comment spammers get so bad I have to shut it down and he can’t respond.

Posted by Contagion in Things that make me go, "GUH?!?!" at June 28, 2007 05:33 PM | TrackBack

Comments

In answer to the questions posed by readers,I just sent this email to the main site. In case it helps to see it posted here, here is the text.

Q1)Quick question Tom: If what you say is true, then how do you respond to the following quote from someone in admissions: “Because you were in the military, you won’t fit in here.” This would seem to directly contravene what you say, so which is it? No spin, straight answer.

A1)I followed up with all of the people in our office who are likely to have had any contact with a student who is not coming directly from high school. Each appeared as shocked as I was to imagine anyone in our office saying such things. Without knowing the context, tone and exact wording, I would just be guessing about what was communicated. However, if this happened as reported, I’m confident that the statement attributed to our staff member was either misunderstood or misspoken. I’m not sure which. In either case, it does not represent the actual feelings and policies of the admission program at Bradley.

Q2) Tom, I do believe the intangibles mentioned "A variety of other factors are considered to help learn about a student's motivation, social skills, time management skills, goals, and a variety of important intangibles that can lead to college success." is learned better by serving in the military than any college campus.

Excluding those factors this young man is left to rely on his grades for admission. As you are well aware when people mature they become better students. My guess is he's matured more than most of your students in the same age bracket, but I don't know the man only his willingness to serve our country. I applaud your university for admitting those who make it possible for us to continue opening educational opportunities for all.

You mentioned you have admitted veterans recently. Do you know the percentage of veterans currently accepted to those denied admission?

In advance, thank you for the follow-up.

A2) I’m afraid that I don’t have any data about the number of students who have applied with military experience. We simply don’t track it. We do get occasional questions about how many students apply with characteristics such as “previously worked as Caterpillar”, or who, “played a high school sport”, etc. We just don’t track this kind of data on the nearly 7,000 applications we receive each year. If I were to guess, I’d bet that we only get a couple of dozen applications from those who have served in the military. I would also guess we admit the majority of our veterans if they have the academic background to start the program of study they choose.

As for relying on grades for a student who might not have had the best academic record coming out of high school, we do see this. In a case such as this, we give a great deal of consideration to a student’s post-high school experience. We have admitted students with lower grades in high school when we feel that the student has had life experience that shows they have a higher academic ability than their high school records show. In some cases, maturity and commitment can overcome poor academic preparation. In other cases, these important attributes won’t be enough to compensate for less math, science or witting experience. Since Bradley has limited offerings for basic academic skill development, some students are advised to get a better academic foundation at an institution such as a community college and then to transfer into a Bradley program in the future.

One last important point; I do not want to suggest that my answers are in direct relation to the individual student who indicates that he has applied. Federal regulations prevent me from commenting on a student’s records without their consent.

Thank you for the opportunity to share a bit of the thinking that goes into creating and administering our admissions policies.

Tom Richmond
Director of Admissions Marketing and Communications

Posted by: Tom Richmond at July 3, 2007 12:53 PM

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