The agenda of the December 3, 2010, meeting of the Enrollment and Admissions Committee focused primarily on two items: an update from Maria Laskaris ’84, dean of admissions and financial aid, and a discussion of the role of the committee.
Update from the Dean: Dean Laskaris highlighted that the department of admissions and financial aid is working on its communications and outreach efforts to prospective students to ensure that they are personalized, direct, inspirational, action-oriented, and interactive. This includes communications with alumni interviews for whom a live web-chat has been scheduled for January 11 at 8 pm EST. In keeping with recent trends, Dean Laskaris noted that the current applicant pool is expected to continue its rapid growth this year (it has almost doubled in the last 10 years) and that she and the other admissions officers are focused on growing the pool of candidates “consistent with the priorities of the College” and in attracting students for the “right reasons” (i.e. the students interests, passions, and ambitions are consistent with the College’s strengths). She also highlighted the “perception tracking” the department is doing with admitted students to identify if the students’ perceptions of the College during their application process matched what they found to be reality once they had matriculated.
The Role of the Committee: The committee segued from Dean Laskaris’s report into a discussion of how the committee members could best serve the needs of the admissions team. This discussion focused primarily on the role of the alumni interviews in the admissions process, including the role of the interviewers themselves. Associate Dean Dan Parish ’89 emphasized the critical importance of the interviews as another insight into each candidate and urged interviewers to view their role as both “evaluator and advocate of the College.” At the suggestion of the admissions department representatives, the committee agreed to take on a research project to find out how other highly selective colleges and universities use alumni interviews and interviewers in the admissions process. Several committee members volunteered to contact various people they know who are involved with alumni interviewing for other schools to better understand their roles and processes. This will be the primary topic for discussion at the next committee meeting in May.