John Wolfgang

Assistant Director of Admissions
(he/him/his)

Home Admissions & Aid Contact Us Find Your Counselor John Wolfgang

Email: jwolfgang@wlu.edu
Text: 540-254-5809
Regions: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New York City (and surrounding counties), Ohio

Short Answer Prompt

To help jumpstart your brainstorming and to demonstrate that we empathize with the challenges you face in applying to college, our staff has published their own responses to our supplemental short-answer prompts. We hope you'll enjoy learning a bit about us and will feel more comfortable showcasing something new about yourself. Remember, these are optional, and you are asked to submit only one.

Prompt #5 (Max 250 words or 2-Minute Video)
You’re assembling a team (for a business, sports league, ensemble, etc.). Your job is to build a healthy and cohesive team that achieves and sustains success in its field. Quickly explain your team’s purpose and then focus on the types of people who comprise your team and which of their skills and/or character strengths are most important to you. The Goal: Make the perfect song (no point trying for a perfect album – no band has ever made more than five good songs). This is a song for all occasions; it will make you cry, make you think, and make you put up PRs in the gym. I will not be considering “group dynamics,” “music theory,” “what these musicians actually do,” or any other made-up, nonsense concepts. Let’s begin. The perfect song is one I can sing along to, which means we’ll need singers who are primarily within my limited vocal range. I’m going with Garth Brooks, and he’ll be assisted by Sam Endicott from the Bravery. Next, we’ll need some more people to help write the lyrics. The primary job of lyrics is to rhyme, with a distant secondary focus on making sense as a complete sentence. I’m choosing Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and Jesse Lacey from Brand New – we’ll also have him play bass. On lead guitar, we’ll have Misha Mansoor from Periphery and whichever member of Two Door Cinema Club makes the guitar sound like that (Sam Halliday). As for our drummer, who cares lol … fine we’ll have Dave Grohl (who just so happens to be a Rockbridge County resident and someone you may run into at a coffee shop downtown). Anytime we have need of another instrument, please assume that Jack White will be playing it. And there you have it, our band is ready. The perfect song will feature seven vocalists, be 22 minutes long, and have the whiniest lyrics in history. "Top of the Pops," here we come.

Prompt #5 (Max 250 words or 2-Minute Video)

You’re assembling a team (for a business, sports league, ensemble, etc.). Your job is to build a healthy and cohesive team that achieves and sustains success in its field. Quickly explain your team’s purpose and then focus on the types of people who comprise your team and which of their skills and/or character strengths are most important to you.

The Goal: Make the perfect song (no point trying for a perfect album – no band has ever made more than five good songs). This is a song for all occasions; it will make you cry, make you think, and make you put up PRs in the gym. I will not be considering “group dynamics,” “music theory,” “what these musicians actually do,” or any other made-up, nonsense concepts. Let’s begin.

The perfect song is one I can sing along to, which means we’ll need singers who are primarily within my limited vocal range. I’m going with Garth Brooks, and he’ll be assisted by Sam Endicott from the Bravery.

Next, we’ll need some more people to help write the lyrics. The primary job of lyrics is to rhyme, with a distant secondary focus on making sense as a complete sentence. I’m choosing Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie and Jesse Lacey from Brand New – we’ll also have him play bass.

On lead guitar, we’ll have Misha Mansoor from Periphery and whichever member of Two Door Cinema Club makes the guitar sound like that (Sam Halliday). As for our drummer, who cares lol … fine we’ll have Dave Grohl (who just so happens to be a Rockbridge County resident and someone you may run into at a coffee shop downtown).

Anytime we have need of another instrument, please assume that Jack White will be playing it. And there you have it, our band is ready. The perfect song will feature seven vocalists, be 22 minutes long, and have the whiniest lyrics in history. "Top of the Pops," here we come.

Admissions & Aid