Hi all! It’s been a long time since we last chatted, and so much has happened since the fall! We have now gone through both admission deadlines, Early Action and Regular Decision. Students have been receiving their admission decisions, visiting campus and hearing from us in regards to what we have to offer.

I know it’s a crazy time for everyone right now, but I sincerely hope that our students take the time to come back to campus. We offer great programs for admitted students, and you’ll be able to learn more about what it’s like to be a Butler student. There’s also an admitted student page on Facebook where you can meet other admitted students and find other students from your area.

There are so many great things Butler has to offer, from student organizations, club sports, service opportunities, greek life and truly outstanding academic programs. Six years later, I couldn’t be happier that I spent my undergraduate years at Butler. This institution helped me grow into the person I am today, and I’m forever grateful for that. It’s a special place, and it’s exciting to see so many students who agree!

If you are an incoming student or parent and have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me or our office! I can be reached at morourke@butler.edu.

Enjoy the rest of your semester and bring on spring!

It’s that time of year again…..12-14 hour days, visiting high schools and attending college fairs….gotta love travel season! Actually, fall is my favorite season and traveling during the fall is one of my favorite parts of this job. This is my sixth travel season, and I so love being able to talk about my alma mater with prospective students. It’s weird to to think that I graduated from Butler five years ago, and I’m in the middle of a sixth travel season. It’s been such a privilege to work for Butler, and talk with students about how many great opportunities we can provide. I’ve seen so many wonderful students so far, and I’m expecting great things for the rest of October.

If you’re considering Butler, please come see your admission counselor at your high school, or visit us at college fairs. We’d love to give you more information about Butler, and answer questions you might have as you go through the college search process. Our goal is to be a resource to you and your family, to answer questions and work through the application process with our seniors.

On that note, seniors-please make sure to get your application to Butler by November 1st! It’s our Early Action deadline, and we will send out decisions December 15th.

In the meantime, please let me know if you have questions. Keep a lookout for an upcoming po

Greetings from a hot and steamy Chicago!

While I like summer, I definitely have a hard time appreciating this kind of weather. I attended a college fair today at IIT, and it was HOT. Thankfully, the students were amazing and it took my mind off the non-air conditioned facility.

It’s crazy to me how fast this summer has gone, and how quickly August is approaching. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacations/classes/working/spending time with families and friends. I know it’s nice for our staff to spend time with family and take time off before the craziness of the fall travel season starts. For the first time in awhile, I have a new territory, and I’m very excited to be working with Wisconsin students! I’ve only ever been to Milwaukee (briefly) so if anyone has any suggestions for places to see, restaurants or anything else, I’d love to hear.

Some other fun happenings coming up:

~~Roommate/student life packets will be arriving to mailboxes shortly! Be on the lookout for more information from us about coming to campus next month.

~~Our new President, James Danko, is set to arrive to Butler very soon. We are so excited to have him on campus!

~~ We will be hosting prospective students at our BU101 next Friday, July 29th. If you are unable to make it, we have plenty of opportunities to come see campus at another time.

~~Our visiting writers series for the fall has been announced. Check it out! http://www.butler.edu/absolutenm/templates/?a=2874&z=41

That’s all I have for now. If you’d like to see what else is going on at Butler, or see more information about admission, please check out our websites:

www.butler.edu
www.butler.edu/admission

As always, please email me if you have questions! morourke@butler.edu

LOVING this weather right now! It’s too bad last week’s BU101 guests did not have the same sunny, breezy weather. Instead, they got rained on during the tour! We had a lot of good sports that day, using the fans we gave them (you know, since it was so hot) as makeshift umbrellas! Loved that! I hope everyone enjoyed their visit-it was nice to meet some of my students that I’ll work with this fall.

I’m also very excited for a new change in my life this fall. For the past three years, I’ve worked with my home state of Missouri. I’m excited for a new chapter as my territory changes! I’ll now work with students from Wisconsin. I’ve only been to Milwaukee once, very briefly. I can’t wait to explore a new territory and work with students from Wisconsin. Here’s to a new territory!

The summer for admission staffs is usually a little less exciting than during the school year. However, I’m really trying hard this year to work on making sure I’m ready and prepared for the upcoming year. Its nice to have time to get organized, clean everything up from last year and work on projects for the summer. This is my sixth travel season, but I learn something new every time, and this year will be no different. If anyone has suggestions about Wisconsin, I’m all ears!

Please let me know if you have any Butler related questions. I’d be more than happy to help!

Atherton Union

A few months ago, Butler was in the midst of a fundraising campaign, and the slogan was something like “what do you love about Butler?” Now, as a graduate of Butler and someone who has worked for the university for five years in June, I clearly am still very passionate about my alma mater. There are a lot of things I love about Butler and with my five year reunion coming up, that’s what got me thinking about this blog entry…

First, let me preface. I can get burned out by my job-I think that’s natural. There’s a lot of travel involved, and at times it can be high stress. However, at the end of the day, I love working for Butler. There’s something to be said for our school, a mid-sized, private university in the middle of the midwest. When I speak with families about Butler, it can be hard not to gush. When I watch Matt Howard play his heart out, our fans yelling and jumping up and down, my heart swells with pride. When I see an amazing performance of the Nutcracker at Clowes Hall or see the band perform the fight song at a football game, I feel so proud to call Butler my alma mater. When I hear about our students winning awards for research, or gaining entry to medical school, law school or some kind of graduate program, I realize just how many great opportunities are available to BU students. When I chat with our student ambassadors who have just given a great tour or chatted with a nice family, I’m reminded constantly that there are really amazing, involved, talented, smart and NICE kids that go to Butler. I know that seems hokey to say, but I couldn’t be prouder of the students we’ve recruited these past four and half years.

I must say, I have Coach Stevens and the basketball team to thank for a resurgence of my school pride. Watching them play their hearts out, beating the odds, the experts, the brackets-it’s a cool thing to watch as a spectator, but even better and more amazing when its YOUR school. OUR school. Our basketball team and their run last year and their success this year has given Butler a national presence and recognition. For that, I’m grateful. I truly believe in our school and its faculty, programs and offerings. Our name recognition wouldn’t be possible without the hoopla surrounding last year (and Saturday’s game against Pitt) but if more students consider Butler because of it, so be it. I’m glad our name is out there, so students can see that a “tiny” (I always want to correct the sportscasters to tell them no, we are actually medium-sized:) school in the midwest has everything you need and want in a college or university.

Like I mentioned, my five year reunion is coming up at this year’s Homecoming. I’m excited, but it also seems so surreal. Is it really possible that I graduated five years ago? When I go back to campus, it seems like yesterday that I was there, and I think that’s one of the greatest parts of Butler. Things have changed a lot since I graduated, but not so much that the feeling I got (you know, the one when you’re looking at schools and you just KNOW it’s the place for you) has changed. It’s still there, and I know it will be there for years and generations to come. I just hope it’s with the team as they compete on Thursday in New Orleans.

To close, for all those still considering Butler, the fight song is below. Learn it and sing along on Thursday, ok?
We’ll sing the Butler war song,
We’ll give a fighting cry;
We’ll fight the Butler battle–
Bulldogs ever do or die.
And in the glow of the victory firelight,
Hist’ry cannot deny
To add a page or two
For Butler’s fighting crew
Beneath the Hoosier sky.

What a crazy fall that was! However, January seems to be shaping up as quite as busy. We’ve admitted students for the fall of 2011, and are currently hosting events for them to attend to hear more about Butler. However, we have another application deadline coming up on January 15th. The longer I’ve been at Butler, the less quiet time there is between application deadlines. I must say, though, that I appreciate being busy, talking with families and coming to campus. Working in Chicago is truly a gift, and I love that I’m able to work with students from this area but still travel to St. Louis.

We hosted an admitted student reception in St. Louis on Monday, and I’m so happy at the attendance! When I was a senior at Butler, I came with the admission office to an event similar to this, also in St. Louis. Five people showed up. How far we’ve come since that day, and I couldn’t be happier! While our name is definitely more well known now, I think Butler has done a great job of keeping up momentum and working to make sure we reach out to students from all over. I just hope this good luck continues as we work through our last two admission deadlines and various events throughout the semester.

To any student reading this-if you have questions, or are confused, would like clarification or anything in between, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I’d be more than happy to help in any way I can! You can reach me via email at morourke@butler.edu

On a final note-I realize it’s recruitment this week, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t wish my favorite house (former residence) good luck:) To all houses-I hope it works out well for you all! Can’t wait to have students back on campus. Here’s to a great 2011!

And I’m here to tell you! I love my job. This time of year, though, is especially busy. The entire office has been processing applications, paperwork and trying to make admission decisions for the applicants of the class of 2015. It has been a CRAZY fall! We’ve seen a definite increase in applications from all over the country. While very exciting, it also requires our full attention. (hence the lack of blogging) I’m sure my senior students will especially understand, given that we are mailing admission decisions DECEMBER 17TH! If you’re a senior who has applied Early Action One, you’ve got less than two weeks to go before we mail you your decision!

I know it’s hard to wait, but you don’t have too much more time. Please know that we are a resource as your admission counselor, and would love to talk through any questions you might have.

Juniors-does this get you excited at all for what’s coming next year?! We hope that you are making trips to campus now, and please be sure to see us at visits and college fairs in your area. You’ve got the time now to figure things out, so please do so!

That’s all I’ve got. Back to reading applications. Please contact us with questions!

Life is CRAZY now, as I am in full-on travel mode! I just finished fair number three of four this week, but I’m still not burned out with the crazy schedule yet. The fairs I’ve attended and the high schools I’ve visited have all gone SO well! I’ve been busy, met with great students and I’m now almost out of materials!  I’m so happy with how it’s all gone so far.

That being said, I’m also very excited to go back to Indy this weekend for our visit day on Monday. We have hosted a visit day on Columbus day for the past couple of years, and it seems to be a great option for students who don’t want to miss classes. It’s a day that allows you to make your own schedule, but still see campus and get admission information. If you haven’t signed up, don’t fret! We have two more open houses coming up at the end of October and in November. You’ll just need to sign up online for those visits at http://go.butler.edu/visit.

Campus is always it’s best in the fall (in my opinion!) so I’m excited to go back. We’ve had a lot of great programming in the past few weeks, and I’m excited to come back and hear how it’s all gone so far.

Can anyone else believe it’s already October?? I can’t believe it’s already the 6th!! Travel season USUALLY goes fast, but I’m amazed how quickly September came and went. Soon enough, we’ll be sending out admission decisions! I’m visiting my little sister at the end of this month over in Ireland, and I couldn’t be more excited-to see her, to see Ireland and to have a family vacation. We get along so well, and it will be nice to have that break after the craziness of travel season.

That’s what I have for now! As always, please feel free to email me with questions!

Megan

morourke@butler.edu