Steve Kelly and John Ramsay

Dean Kelly’s Update, 10/21/02
Increase significantly our pool of talented, diverse applicants

Since the adoption of the 21st Century Report, there has been a 45% increase in applications to a historical record in the 2001-2002 cycle of 4,165 applicants. The Admissions Strategy Task Force helped plan a comprehensive strategy involving increased alumni volunteer efforts through the Alumni Admissions Program, implementation of new software for better tracking of prospects and applicants, and new research to study market share and identify the best “markets of opportunity” for Carleton. The Starr Foundation grant enabled the hiring of an international recruiter and the expansion of Asian recruitment efforts. In the fall of 2002 a total of 35 international students, including 12 Starr Scholars, will enroll, representing 7% of the class.

Domestic diversity has also increased through several initiatives. The Donald Scholars Program provides special scholarships to talented African Americans from targeted New Orleans high schools. Carleton joined the POSSE Foundation in 2000 to select and bring up to a dozen talented and diverse students from Chicago public schools to campus. The first POSSE enrolled in the fall of 2001 and the second POSSE has been chosen and will join us in 2002. In the summer of 2001 the first CLAE (Carleton Liberal Arts Experience) program brought 50 talented rising junior Black/African Americans from around the country to a one-week summer program that is a highly successful exposure to the liberal arts. The second CLAE week is scheduled for the summer of 2002.

Specific measures of the past four years show these increases: from 1998 to 2002, applications rose 45% to two record years of over 4,000 applications; selectivity dropped from 55% to 35%; yield has increased from a 29-30% range to 35%. International students have grown from 2% to 7% of their class. American multicultural students have risen from an average of 15-16% to 19-20% of the class with significant increases in the proportion of Black/African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos, 20 or more from each group for two years in a row. Need-sensitivity has ranged between 5 and 9% during this period.

Re-evaluate our principles and policies regarding financial aid

The Admissions and Financial Aid Committee (AFAC) reviewed aid principles and policies in 1998-99 as a result of changes in packaging procedures by competitor institutions in the past few years. In May 1999 College Council approved a limited proposal for some differential packaging while reaffirming our commitment to need-based aid. The Committee reaffirmed the need for ongoing monitoring of what is a dynamically changing landscape in the awarding of financial aid. More recently, AFAC reviewed the report of the 568 Presidents’ group and discussed the impact of diversity goals on the overall financial aid budget. As part of the need for further refining our data and research, AFAC and the Admissions Strategy Task Force have recommended the purchase and implementation of a College Board software product called the Financial Aid Strategy Tool (FAST). This will add both an analytical tool to our financial aid awarding policy and a modeling capacity to test out potential alterations of packaging procedures.

1. GOAL: Minimize need-sensitivity.

Rationale: Though our need-sensitive policy has successfully put a brake on spiraling financial aid costs, it conflicts with our ideal of offering admission without regard to ability to pay. Two goods are at odds: controlled costs versus increased opportunity for lower income applicants. There seems to be consensus that we can and must live with this tension. But the tension is eased when we’re closer to 10% rather than 15% of our offers are on an “ability to pay” basis.

Estimated Cost on returning to need-blind: An additional $2.2 million per year.

2. Goal: Replacement (after 4 more years)of Starr Foundation Scholarships (8 comprehensives) & expand with equivalent programs for non-Asian students. Currently we have only 2 Kellogg scholarships to offer international applicants.

Rationale: Without the “Starrs,” our other Asian applicant pools will likely dry up. One-half of our Asian enrollees are non-scholarship students. Programs similar to Starr for Latin American, Eastern Europe and African students would help to solidify our growing international student base and admissions profile.

Cost: Starr program: 8x35,000=$280,000

3. Goal: Funding for admissions initiatives such as Posse and CLAE.

Rationale: We’ll need creative new ways to sustain our multicultural recruitment. CLAE program yielded 1/3rd of our African-American enrollees for next year. What are similar programs for Latinos, native Americans and Asian students?

Cost: Posse=$269,100 for ’02-’03. CLAE: $65-70,000+ personnel costs.

4. Goal: Sustaining and improving quality, applications and yield rates.

Rationale: We’ve made substantial progress since 1998: Applications up 2870 to 4734; acceptance rate down: 55% to 30%; Yield up 30% to 35%; Multicultural enrollment: 16% to 24%; African-American enrollment 3% to 6% (incoming class). In this volatile area, it is likely that we’ll have to improve to keep our place, let alone win in “overlap” competition with even more selective schools.

Costs: A lot of hard work, institutional commitment, faculty involvement, unknown cost.

5. Enhanced student academic support services for our increasingly diverse student body, including consideration of some departmentally-based programs.

Rationale: As we diversify, the faculty will continue to face new challenges of instructing students who bring both talents and shortcomings that do not always align with traditional Carleton norms. It may be that we’ll have to re-think and re-configure some academic support for students and some instructional development for faculty.