College meets desired enrollment

Author: Cloe Shasha

The College's Office of Admissions announced that, as of May 6, it had received 564 deposits for September and 92 for February enrollment. The numbers ensured that it would fill its target enrollment size of 570 for September and 90 students for February, after only 18.5 percent out of a record 7,823 applicants were admitted to Middlebury's Class of 2012.

The number of applicants grew by nine percent this year. In order to prevent a second over-enrollment - after the Class of 2011 yielded an unexpectedly high matriculation rate - the Class of 2012 acceptance pool dropped by 200 students.

"We had to play it very conservatively this year so that we did not have a recurrence of last year," said Dean of Admissions Robert Clagett. "We accepted fewer applicants so that we would fill the target size for the Class of 2012 if we got last year's yield."

According to Associate Director of Admissions Bertram Phinney, several outstanding students have already chosen Middlebury from the acceptance pool, some of whom are highly accomplished in the arts. One student has performed on Broadway and in films, another is the North American Irish Step-Dancing Champion and another has performed at Carnegie Hall.

Other students have made impressive impacts in social work. One student founded and taught at an inner city school in Kenya, another established a foundation to save local theaters and another co-founded a nationwide non-profit charity to support young people affected by Hurricane Katrina called Students Extending Assistance to Students, Inc.

The Office of Admissions made an increased effort to recruit outstanding students this year, informing 170 of the 1,455 accepted students in early March of their admittance before the rest of the applicants. The goal of this program is to establish faculty contacts early and increase the chances of recruiting those students.

"We sent out early notification letters to an even bigger group of top-notch candidates - not only academically, but also students who bring amazing other talents and great personalities to the College," Clagett said. "They're really great 'Midd-kids,' as they say. Last year, there was a perception that we were trying to dramatically alter the student body of Middlebury. But we're not - we just haven't aggressively sought out these applicants before."

The early-notification recipients for the Class of 2011 had a special preview day program for their small group. Middlebury eliminated that program for the Class of 2012, but included the 170 students in the normal preview days. The College expanded the normal preview days by a half-day, which gave admitted students more time to relax and get to know one another. They also had more face time with faculty.

Middlebury's admissions staff also changed their international student recruiting strategies this year.

"We had a traveler spend more time in Latin America this year and we did not visit any African countries - which we had in the fall of 2006," said Associate Director for International Admissions Barbara Marlow. "We always try to add new cities and new schools to our international travel and did so this year. Mostar, in Bosnia, was added to the travel itinerary this year, as were some different and new schools in some of the cities we have visited in the past."

The College accepted 171 international students, representing 118 countries. Of those countries, China saw the highest acceptance rate. The College hopes to receive 66 matriculating international students. Six international students were admitted for the February class.

The admissions office sees no end to the trend of receiving an increasing number of applications, a trend that has occurred during each of the last three years.

"We are attracting more great candidates to Middlebury because of who we are," said Clagett.