Name: Amanda Blakewood Pascale
Title: Associate Director of Admissions
Region: All 🙂
Educational Background: Bachelor’s: University of Central Florida; Master’s: University of Tennessee; Ph.D. University of Tennessee
UNF Start Date: August 1, 2011
Years in Admissions: I’m a newbie to the admissions world; this is my first year in admissions but I have over five years experience in higher education.
Why did you choose to go into college admissions? Being a bit of a numbers geek, I like the opportunity that I have in admissions to identify and influence enrollment trends. While I can disappear in the numbers some days, on others I am still able to work one-on-one with students and their families to help them find the right fit for college. It offers the best of both worlds!
What do you like best about working in admissions? Knowing that the decisions I make have a direct and positive influence on a student’s future. It is an amazing feeling to work with a student, see their progress, and then be able to reward hard work with admission to UNF.
What is one of the quirkiest things an applicant ever did with their application? I’ve received a few that were “different” from your standard application. I am, however, still waiting on something like the Legally Blond video application. Elle Woods….Welcome to UNF 🙂
What makes an application essay really stand out for you? I am interested less in someone’s actual experiences and more in how they communicate what they have learned from the experience. One of the best essays I have ever read was a simple account of the student’s day. However, it was special because it was ethnographic in nature, infused with deep insights gained from the ordinary experiences of an average student.
What common mistake do you see regarding application submission? Sometimes students will not send in all of their information if they feel it will hurt them in some way. For example, if a student does not perform as well as they would like on one of their standardized tests, in some cases they are reluctant to send their scores from that test to us. I encourage students to send us all available information. At UNF we will “super score” which means we will take the best score from each subsection to create a composite. The more information we have available the more we can pull from to the greatest benefit of the student.
What is the funniest thing you’ve overheard or seen while at UNF? Watching John King from CNN SWOOP while he was broadcasting live from UNF campus for the Presidential Debate was pretty amazing!
What is your favorite place on the UNF campus? Hello Starbucks!
If you could join any club or organizations, which one would you join? I would love to join the philosophy club. I’m always up for a good philosophical debate. Bonus if they meet in Starbucks or another coffee shop!
What song or book or movie makes you think of your college days and why? In college I wrote a song that became sort of an anthem for me and my sorority sisters. I would play it on guitar and we would sing it in our chapter room where the acoustics were good and we thought we sounded amazing –a literal sort of kumbaya, if you will. It used to really annoy our poor house mom…which of course only added to the fun.
What is your “go to” answer when someone asks why he/she should choose UNF? At UNF we pride ourselves on the personalized attention we give to our students. We strive to give students the opportunities and attention available to them at a private school for the price of a public state institution. Taken together, this makes UNF a truly unique school and a great value!
Give us a piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you began college? Don’t be afraid to get involved early on. The more you give to UNF the more you will get out of your college experience. It is an amazing feeling to be able to walk around campus and know that you have contributed to making UNF what it is. There is no better way to experience Osprey Pride. GO OSPREY! SWOOP!
Swoop Scoop 