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Admissions/Recruitment Working Group

Charge

For us to succeed with our new vision for the College, we must be certain that prospective students learn about the new opportunities at the College and that we vigorously and strategically recruit students who can benefit from our education. And once they learn about us, the admissions process needs to be flawlessly professional. At the end of the day, the College will not benefit from admitting men and from enhancing its curriculum if students are not attracted in increasing numbers to join us. You should work closely with the Communications/Marketing /Branding group (indeed, some joint meetings may well be appropriate), and both groups need to stay in close contact with the curriculum and pedagogy group.

As we all know, recruitment and admissions at independent liberal arts colleges have become extremely competitive. Consequently, it is an area that has a developing literature on “best practices” and a growing industry of professional experts. We must benefit from both.

Specifically, the working group should:

• Identify and engage a consultant(s) from a firm with a proven track-record in recruitment and admissions.
• Identify and engage a consultant(s) from a firm with a proven track-record in scholarship and financial aid strategies (including leveraging strategies to lower tuition discount rate).
• Analyze financial aid policies, specifically, the merit award scheme, toward the goal of, over time, reducing the tuition discount. 
• Examine colleges that have gone co-educational in the last decade to review their recruitment and admissions strategies and results.
• Review Arts & Sciences market research.
• Consult appropriate faculty groups.
• Review the current admissions process, examining such areas as deadlines, application fee, response times, use of technology, and student satisfaction with the process.

Once the above data and information (and any other that the group deems to be useful for its work) has been gathered and analyzed, the group should develop recommendations for both recruitment strategies (short and long-term) and admission processes, policies, and practices. In all its work, the group should place the highest priority on maximizing the number of students who can succeed with, and benefit from, our education while maintaining or increasing our quality and diversity. There should be specific targets, by year, for applicants and enrollees.