Indeed they do.
After a couple of admissions cycles, some will move on to something else, while others will get sucked into the
higher education industry for the rest of their careers.
“A co-worker of mine once described admissions as a two-or-20 job, meaning you’re either in it for two years or 20 years,” said Matthew Kaberline, who used to work in UMW admissions and recently became the associate director of college counseling at the Severn School in Maryland. “There didn’t seem to be an in between.”
The centerpiece of the job is “travel season,” which runs from September to early November. Recruiters hit the suburbs with color-coded calendars and global positioning systems loaded with high school addresses. They rack up loyalty program points at mid-tier hotels, log thousands of miles on rental cars and learn how to hide booze on their expense reports.
Between appointments, they wander through shopping malls, search for a Panera with WiFi or dream about how they will someday blow all of these loyalty points on a major vacation. Many of these road warriors become friends. Some drunkenly hook up. A few fall in love.
But the lifestyle can be exhausting. The pay can be painfully low. And it can be frustrating for some recruiters, who are figuring out their lives, to deal with high school students who are doing the same thing.
A couple of points on this:
1) I was always told that admissions is a “3-or-30 career”. You’re in it for 3 years then on to something else (usually high school guidance counseling), or you’re in it for 30 years prior to retirement. I’m working on 10-plus and counting – with no sign of departure.
Apparently, I’ve been “sucked” into higher education.
2) I don’t know if I would agree that travel season is the “centerpiece” of the admissions recruiter’s year. But, it is definitely a big part of it.
Back in my travel days, we didn’t have GPS in every car. But, we did “rack-up” the miles in rental cars and “rewards points” at the big hotel chains. No comment on the booze…
[Yeah. That’s me and my babyface, circa 2001 – at the height of my travel glory days.]
3) I made quite a few lasting friends on the road, but I’m proud to say that I never “hooked up” with anyone while traveling (except for my wife who once surprised me at the Atlantic City NACAC National fair by showing up at my hotel).
I do remember the days of being a “road warrior” with a strange fondness. Granted, it was a royal pain for my family life. Unlike many of the “20-somethings” that the article talks about, when I was in my early career I was already married and starting a family. I made every effort to do “out-and-back” visits (as opposed to “overnighters”), but inevitably I would be away from my wife and young child two, three or four nights-per-week.
That said, despite feelings of (extreme) guilt, I did have fun on the road.
Nowadays, I consider myself fortunate to work in a college admissions job that requires almost no recruitment travel. Oh sure, I visit a few local high schools, occasionally visit other Penn State campuses around the Commonwealth, and of course I attend professional development conferences/conventions. But gone are the days of the “road warrior”.
All of that said, I think that I am still finding my own future. You don’t have to be a “20-something” to be continually searching for what you “want to be when you grow up”.
