Top applicants to get free visit

Author: Tom Brant

In an effort to more effectively recruit highly qualified applicants, the Admissions Office will soon begin notifying more than a hundred top applicants to the Class of 2011 of their likely acceptance and offer them a free trip to Middlebury, Dean of Admissions Robert Clagett announced at a faculty meeting on Monday. The plan to attract "truly fabulous" students follows a major increase in application numbers, from roughly 6,200 last year to nearly 7,200 this year, and an overall rise in the number of top applicants.

"They are some of the most sought after students in the country," Clagett told the faculty about the students who would be brought to Middlebury. "We want to show them what they can do here at Middlebury College."

The free visits, which will be funded by the Office of College Advancement, will become part of a process begun last year that notified top applicants of their likely admission to Middlebury and put them in contact with professors in their fields of interest. This year, using the admissions ranking system developed with the strategic plan, Clagett said there was a 50 percent increase over last year in the number of applicants receiving the top rating, and one percent was identified as containing the top students who will receive free trips.

"We have just finished identifying the 101 truly fabulous, slam-dunk, no-brainer, great applicants in the regular decision pool whom we want to attract in increasing numbers to enroll at Middlebury," said Clagett.

In a few weeks, the admissions office will send "likely letters" and encourage them to consider choosing the College.

"They will be getting personalized letters saying, 'You are fabulous. You should be congratulated for having such a great career in your secondary school, and you have every reason to believe that you're going to be getting very good news from us in March,'" said Clagett. "We're trying not to be too coy about it."

The letters will begin a cultivation of these students with involvement from both professors and current students.

"We need many of you to help us get these students," said Clagett, who asked faculty to help by actively corresponding and meeting with the high-schoolers, and by introducing likely-accepts to Middlebury students who share their interests.

Last year, 15 percent of applicants who received the early letters and correspondence with faculty decided to enroll.

"It wasn't bad but it's not something to be satisfied with," said Clagett. "We'd love to get 25, 30, even 35 percent or more of those students enrolled."

The visits are scheduled for April 5-6, and Clagett said he estimates that about 50 students will accept the invitation to come to campus. The visit will be specially tailored to the students' academic interests, and they will have the opportunity to not only meet with faculty members but also with juniors and seniors who are doing research projects in their areas of interest.