Lyndsay LaBarge's blog

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for the Class of 2012 Commencement Ceremony. It was 85 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! While I enjoyed the ceremony in the shade of the large, leafy trees over Creasy Commons, I think the graduates would have appreciated a cloud or two, or at least a breeze to cut the heat.


Photo provided by Tara Freeman, University Photographer.

As the Class of 2016 comes together, the memories of my first reading have faded a bit and the desire to pick up a book and read has suddenly come back! After reading 701 applications (that’s 701 essays, 1,402 letters of recommendations and 2,103 short answer questions), I really was not interested in any form of reading, not even Harry Potter or my favorite food blogs. But, after a few months of rest, my cravings for a good read have lead me to some great new novels. Check out what I have been reading in my One Woman Book Club!

First and foremost, apologies are in order for my recent web absence. April proved to be quite a busy month for the St. Lawrence University Admissions Office. We wrapped up our last two Visit Days until fall, we hosted three Admitted Student Open House Days events, and several counselors were in and out on spring travel. Poof, it’s May! April was so busy and went by so fast I am just unpacking from my week of spring travel in Connecticut. I wouldn’t consider myself a seasoned admissions traveler yet but after spending 11 weeks on the road (10 during my fall travel and one for my spring travel), you pick up a tip or two to help complete your travel as hassle and worry free as you can. So, if you’re an Admissions Counselor, planning the ultimate road trip or fun vacation for the summer months with your friends, here are a few quick tips I think you will find helpful!

On a few rare occasions, I do not mind waking up early. Well that's actually a lie.... Let’s be honest, I very much dislike getting up early. I can do 7:00am. I can even squeak in a 6:50am wake-up here and there but anything before 6:50am makes me a bit cranky and feeling like I need three times the dose of caffeine increasing my cups of coffee from two to six. So last Friday, when my alarm went off at 6:00am for our first Admitted Student Open House event, I rolled over with a groan and desperately wanted to snooze. When I pulled back the curtains and saw the sun shining through downtown Canton, I bucked up, turned on the shower, put on the coffee and got ready for the day!


Sunrise from my apartment on Friday morning

On a traditional prospective student tour of St. Lawrence University, our Admissions Ambassadors bring guests on a one hour walking tour of campus. They stop in some traditional campus hot-spots, our main library, the Student Center, and meander through our state-of-the-art fitness complex. If you find that you just can’t get up to campus to see it for yourself, we have an interactive virtual tour where you can explore campus from a bird’s eye view, read about our buildings and see almost everything. What you don’t see from our online tour and in some cases, on our traditional student-led tour, are “SLU Hidden Gems”. With the help of one of my student bloggers Noah Jenkins, below are some of our favorite hidden spots on campus.

Tree Room, 3rd Floor, Owen D. Young Library.

Last Friday was what we call Mailing Day in Payson Hall. Our entire staff gathers on the third floor and we spend the morning sealing envelops for the next class. It was my first “sealing celebration” and while it took us months to read these files, it took merely 30 minutes for us to seal all the letters, stack them up, and wait for the mail truck to arrive.

Well, there it is. Light. Light at the end of the tunnel! Countless hours, thousands of applications, six boxes of Girl Scout cookies, and many packets of gum later, reading season for the Class of 2016 is complete. Reflecting on my first reading season, now, it kind-of-maybe-really was not too bad, a few late nights and a few weekends, overall, I am quite excited to mail our letters Friday and welcome the next class to St. Lawrence University.

Two weeks ago, thirty current St. Lawrence students submitted an application for the Admissions Summer Internship Program. And, for the past two weeks the selection committee has read, reviewed, and made decisions on the twelve students that we want to interview. After some careful scheduling, the interview process for our twelve students began yesterday!

Above, interns are hard at work, on a Sunday nonetheless, making decisions and jotting their thoughts down!

When you hear the word Broadway, what do you think of? Dazzling lights…? Spectacular vocal performances…? Leg kicking Rockettes…?  The famous Les Miserables…? What about St. Lawrence University’s Time Out Café Broadway Tomato Basil Soup? No, I didn’t think so.