To snatch the applicants, Admissions increases aid

Author: Anthony Adragna

The College was buzzing last week with the 60 prospective students who received free trips to the College. The visits were part of the busiest time of year for the Office of Admissions, which also announced plans to introduce more financial aid dollars for qualified students.

"With a 16 percent increase in applications, competition this year was even more intense," Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett said. "Between the 16 percent increase this year and the 18 percent increase from the year before, we've had an increase in applications of 38 percent over the last two years."

The College continued to maintain a very competitive acceptance rate.

"We had an overall admittance rate of 23 percent," Clagett said. "We admitted 1,658 kids out of 7,185. We're hoping for around 600 for the September class and 90 for the February class. That February number is about 14 lower than this year's class and is part of the scaling back of the Feb program."

Clagett attributes the rise in applications to a variety of factors, some of them specific to Middlebury and others part of a national trend.

"Some reasons are true of all schools across the country," he said. "Namely, demographically the number of high school graduates is on the rise. There is a good correlation between an increase of graduating high school students and applications at Midd. Additionally, there is the fact that more students are applying to more colleges. So that accounts for some of the rest of the increase."

The rise in applications at the College exceeds the rate seen at peer institutions by at least five percent, according to Clagett.

"There has got to be something different happening at Midd," he said. "The areas for which we are known: environmental science, international studies and languages are catching on in ways we haven't seen in the past. We take a broad approach to global issues. What's happening is that we have a pragmatic twist to our curriculum that many people care about right now."

Other NESCAC schools reported increases in applications, according to Clagett. Applications to Bowdoin are up nine percent, Williams increased five percent, Colby rose 10 percent and Amherst applications increased by nine percent, according to data given to the Office of Admissions from other colleges.

Last week, the Office of Admissions also facilitated the arrival of the 100 "likely" students who received free trips from the College to come and visit. Students arrived on Thursday and stayed until Friday night. Over 60 students accepted the offer to visit the College.

Student Program Director Jackie Hurwitz '07 said the program attempted to give students a variety of activities to try while on campus.

"We wanted to make sure prospective students would get the most out of their visit, so we tried to offer a wide variety of options that would emphasize Middlebury's academic program, as well as give a taste of daily life on campus," she said. "The schedule was extremely flexible so that students would have the chance to explore what most interested them."

Hurwitz said the only challenge the program faced was finding enough available hosts.

"The average Midd-kid is understandably very busy, so it was a challenge at first to find available hosts," she said. "However, the actual program ran very smoothly, and all of the feedback I've received has been quite positive."

The program offered the students many opportunities to meet Middlebury students outside of the classroom.

"We had an introductory dinner on Thursday evening and placed prospective students at tables with current students and faculty who shared similar interests," she said. "We also invited visiting students to a number of pre-existing campus events - from plays to symposia - so that they could meet current students in a casual setting and try to gain a better sense of the student body."

Students who visited comprise a variety of diverse interests and localities.

"One-third [of the visitors] are students of color," said Clagett. "One-half are eligible for grant assistance."

Clagett said he expects the number of admitted students who enroll in the College to remain constant.

"Our yield is relatively predictable," he said. "43 to 44 percent is our yield of admitted students in the past. My guess is that the factors that could cause the yield to go up and to go down will end up balancing each other out."

In addition to sending out the notices of admittance, and hosting the likely students, the administration announced an effort last week to reduce the loan portion of students' aid package by up to $2,500, starting with the Class of 2011.

"Our average debt at graduation is higher than many competitors," Clagett said. "We are concerned, beyond whether financial aid is comparable to other schools, that students' debt at graduation will have an impact on post-graduation plans. It would be sad if someone couldn't pursue lower-paying public service jobs because of debts."

Clagett said the College hoped that debt would not become a barrier to admissions.

"We certainly want to make sure the idea of debt does not affect their decision to apply," he said. "The average debt at graduation is a very important question that is very seldom asked. Our hope is to create even more socioeconomic diversity in the student body."