Volume CXXXIII, Number 5 October 12, 2001 f

New Admissions Dean
SOPHIA BASSAN
STAFF WRITER

Jim Miller, the new Dean of Admissions, loves Bowdoin College. He calls it "one of the great places in America." In fact, though Dean Miller did miss being on a college campus, he was perfectly happy at his previous job with the College Board. But when he heard his mentor, Dean Steele, who he describes as "one of my favorite people," was retiring, he jumped at the chance to apply for the position.

(Liesl Finn, Bowdoin Orient)

Originally from West Chester, Pennsylvania, Dean Miller earned his undergraduate degree in American History from Brown University. He had initially anticipated being a lawyer but instead ended up earning a master's in communication from Michigan State University. Afterwards, he had a short career as a consultant for television.

From there, he returned to what he jokes is a "hereditary" affinity for positions in education. His brother, sister, parents, aunts, grandmother, and grandfather were teachers, and the next job Miller took was in the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid at Harvard College. During part of his employment there, he lived in the freshmen dorms as a proctor and was also an academic advisor. Miller thought he would be there for a year, he ended up staying for twenty-one. When he decided it was "time to do something else," he had been Director of Financial Aid for seventeen years.

For his next job, he returned to his alma mater for about a year and was involved in fundraising. There after, he began a new job with product development in a technology production center for the College Board. He was still living in Boston at the time and commuted to Virginia every week.

After his two year-long positions, Miller is at Bowdoin to stay. He works long hours, 60 to 70 a week, but loves his position and especially loves his location. He is "happy with the transition" to Maine and says his job has "been what I thought and hoped it would be." He deems the faculty and students alike as "high-quality folks." He favorably compares Bowdoin to Harvard, saying their differences are "a matter of scale." With his conviction that Bowdoin is a "first rate" institution, Dean Miller "expect[s] to be here for a long time."