Hearing back from an old "admission crush"

Yesterday I got an IM from TheBigBob22* telling me that I ought to be proud of myself for giving Bob a chance to attend Tulane. He's now a senior, triple majoring in Greek, Latin and Philosophy, and about to graduate magna cum laude. Bob and I first began our AIM relationship in the fall 0f 2005 when he tracked me down as a Tulane Admission Counselor. He wasn't in my geographic region, so we never met at his high school college fair or in his hometown, but I had listed Tulane on my AIM profile and one day, Bob and I started talking about his college search process. It became clear that while Bob didn't fit the academic profile for Tulane, he was a bright and motivated student. Ultimately, when the dean asked us for our admission crushes, (If any of you actually know Richard Whiteside, you are certain that the term admission crush was invented by his staff and that he is in no way responsible. It describes the handful of prospective students that counselors were endorsing for admission to Tulane who fall outside the typical profile.) I brought up Bob.

When Bob visited campus, we met face to face and I set up faculty meetings for him and he ultimately enrolled. I ran into him occasionally for the next few years until I moved away from New Orleans. So you can imagine my surprise when I got Bob's IM yesterday, telling me he's done quite well for himself. And then he said that I should be proud of myself. I told him I knew that he deserved an opportunity and that he should be proud of himself. Now that he's gotten accepted to a Ph.D. program, I think Tulane can be proud of him, too.

* AIM Screennames altered to protect the innocent.