All the students know you. How does it feel to be ‘famous’ within the student community?
It’s both heart-warming and fun. There’s many a time when we’ve had the induction week or the first meeting with all the first years where the staff introduce themselves and I stand up and say, “I’m Vicky Mills,” and there’s a sort of hum in the room. I meet about 500 people a year and they all know my name, so I guess in that sense I am famous! One year when the students were all lining up for their matriculation photo on Latham Lawn, I went down the row asking their names and then guessed what they were studying. I got most of the answers right which shows that whilst they know me, I also know them!
How has your personal experience of studying at Cambridge helped you in your role?
I studied Natural Sciences at Newnham, and that experience has certainly been useful. I understand the general structure of many of the courses at Cambridge in that you start broad then you narrow as you go along. I understand how the colleges work, how a collegiate university is put together, but I also enjoyed extracurricular stuff as well when I was student, so I know that there are so many opportunities for students to get involved in other things at Cambridge. I did ballroom dancing and loved it, and I was in a choir at Queens’, MagSoc (St Margaret Society). I did a lot with my church and for a couple of years I was in a society called Cambridge Christian Musicals Society, where we put on faith-based musicals. We took my friend’s show Yours Personally on tour in a minibus to schools and churches for two summers in a row. So, because I had a positive experience at Cambridge, it means that I can genuinely encourage other people to apply too.
How has admissions changed in the past 20 years?
We have more applicants now than when I first started, but that’s been a trend for the University overall. The Admissions Team has expanded as well. When I started it was just me and the Admissions Tutor, and now we have a Director of Admissions and two people, Xanthe and Siam, in outreach roles. Their projects such as ‘You’ll Fit In’ and the podcast series ‘Cambridge from the Inside’ are intended to have a real impact on getting applications from the best candidates and encouraging them to believe that Cambridge is a place for them, regardless of their financial or social background. They really help show prospective students that if they did come here, they would find a home and feel like they belong. There’s also email, of course, which has had a huge impact. When I first started, I was thrown in the deep end. I started around the 25 October, bearing in mind that the closing date for applications is the 15 October, and everything was on paper, so I had to type everything into a database. Communication was mainly done by letter, and we had to leave decision letters with the porters to be posted on a particular day over Christmas. I spent ages undoing envelopes with essays in and photocopying everything. It’s all digital now.
What keeps you motivated?
I enjoy the work and I enjoy the process. It’s a nice environment, it’s a nice atmosphere and there’s something satisfying about completing another admissions round for the next generation of Trinity Hall students. I always say it’s like bringing order to chaos!
