Tony Cabasco, Dean of Admission & Financial Aid

As told to Cindy Chin

The Interview:

 “A student who was a perfectly good student but in the interview, as she’s walking in, her cell phone rang and she proceeded to talk for 15 minutes and the admissions officer waited politely.”

 “Another person was really sick and threw up during the interview. It didn’t affect their chances at all, but still. The person … apologized a lot for it, but that person got in.”

 “About 15-16 years ago, a student who was visiting campus was caught shoplifting at Safeway. That student was not admitted. The ironic thing was that the student worked at home at Safeway.”

 “Another staff member was interviewing a student was holding a Styrofoam cup, and whether it was out of nerves or what, began nibbling at the Styrofoam and soon enough he was eating the Styrofoam. The so was just watching and freaking out, like, he’s eating Styrofoam!”

The Essay:

“I remember one essay, where someone wrote about Shakira. I can’t remember, after the first sentences I was just like, what?”

“A student came out in his essay, and it was something the student hadn’t told family or friends but was writing an essay talking about the difficulties of being gay in high school.”

“I remember a few years ago, this student didn’t have a graded paper so they wrote about Beowulf. But wrote ‘Bearwolf’ all the way through the essay.”

Meet the class of 2013:

“We get to know people fairly well in the application process.”

“We had an applicant who survived cancer in high school.”  

“We’ve had an applicant who is currently homeless who will be admitted, and we’re going to do our best to help them. They don’t have an address, how do we deal with that situation?”

“This guy from New York City who founded a nonprofit with a few students to provide shoes for young students at a sister school in Kenya. Another student [he] started a non-profit to help homeless Romanian orphans.”

“You hear inspiring stories like that, with students who overcome so much and are still amazing students, involved and engaged. This person’s going to make a difference.”