NACAC Conference Week Begins

Here I sit in my office on an early Monday morning on the precipice of the busiest professional week of my life to date. I know many times on this blog it may seem like I am exaggerating when I talk about the hectic nature of my job, or being really busy, or lacking sleep because of work ... and yes, probably in some cases I am using a bit of hyperbole. Not this time. The next seven days are absolutely going to be described by that collection of busy / hectic / overwhelming adjectives. Despite all that though, this is going to be one of the most engaging, educational, engrossing, and enjoyable weeks of my career.

Why you ask? Well, as the title of this entry states, NACAC Conference Week is here!!! And by here, I mean in BALTIMORE.

Before I continue, I think for the uninitiated it may be best to explain what NACAC is, what the NACAC Conference is, and why it being in Baltimore is a huge deal. NACAC stands for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Founded in 1937, the organization today has a professional membership of over 11,000 from around the world. The membership includes professionals dedicated to assisting students in the transition from secondary to postsecondary education. That means NACAC members are admissions counselors, financial aid officers, guidance counselors, independent college counselors, members of the education media, higher education leaders, and more recently vendors that supply products to colleges or high school related to the college admissions process. One of the chief roles of NACAC is to maintain "high standards that foster ethical and social responsibility among those involved" in the college admissions process. Many of you may be familiar with NACAC in the National College Fairs that they hold throughout the country each year.

Every year in late September or early October the full membership of NACAC is invited to a National Conference. The conference is a chance for professionals from all sides of the college admissions process to come together to discuss the issues of the day and also share a variety of professional development opportunities. The national conference is made up of a series of educational sessions, a couple of guest speakers, a general member assembly, a counselors' college fair, a unique vendor hall, and a series of social events. It is what one would expect of a conference on higher education issues, except for the fact that typically upwards of 4000 people attend. Take a look at all involved with the NACAC Conference 2009 here.

Well if you have yet to connect the dots, the big deal about the 2009 NACAC National Conference being in Baltimore is that means I don't have to travel to attend. No seriously, it has everything to do with the fact that 4000+ professionals related to the world of college admissions and descending on the city where Johns Hopkins University is the preeminent institution of higher education. More than half of these visitors are guidance counselors (or independent counselors) who play a vital role in relaying information about a school back to the world of prospective college students. This is a once-in-a-generation chance for Hopkins to invite and host hundreds of counselors to the Homewood campus and help frame the way counselors will talk about Hopkins to future applicants. Many, if not most, of these visiting counselors have never stepped foot on the Homewood campus, and have never had a first-hand look at what makes Johns Hopkins University distinct. This is our chance to re-define how counselors across the nation and the world view Johns Hopkins University, and provide these counselors with accurate and anecdotal information to relay back to the high school students they work with. As I said, THIS IS A BIG DEAL.

Since March, a handful of my colleagues and I have been planning for this week. We have organized special campus visit events for these counselors, including a massive Insider's Tour program for this Wednesday afternoon. We have also organized a very active presence of the entire Johns Hopkins Admissions staff at the actual conference which begins in full on Thursday at the Convention Center downtown. We have, I believe, dotted all the "i"s and crossed all the "t"s, but as I sit here this morning I am a bit concerned that we may have missed something. And to be honest, I will have that concern until late Saturday evening as the Conference ends with an enjoyable social at M&T Bank (Ravens) Stadium.

I think this will be my seventh National Conference and for obvious reasons this is the one I am most excited for. Since I entered the profession I have been attending the NACAC Conference as professional development. My first conference was when it came to Washington, D.C. in 1998 or 1999; it is so long ago I can't remember. I was working at American University at the time, and I really didn't understand how important the Conference was to someone in the college admissions profession. My opinion changed when the next year I attended the National Conference in Salt Lake City and had the time of my life. The educational sessions were enriching, the networking was tremendous, and the social events ... well let's just say SLC can be quite a fun city. Through the years I attended conferences in Long Beach, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and just last year the amazing city of Seattle. I have had the chance to represent two schools at these conferences (AU and JHU), present a few times on topics I am familiar with (online chats and blogging), and all-in-all connect with the amazing professionals in my field. But none of these previous experiences have truly prepared me as to what is on the verge of commencing today.

As I told you at the start of this entry, this is going to be one crazzzzzzy week for me; I best sign-off and start my day. I do hope to return frequently to the blog over the week with tales and pictures of NACAC Conference Week 2009. Johns Hopkins and Baltimore are ready to host these college admission visitors, let's just hope I am too.