Carolina Alumni Review - January/February 2007

funding into its recurring budget. That move, he said, shows that state leaders understand and support enrollment growth.

University leaders past and present have made a promise to educate and train North Carolina’s young minds — to be the driving force behind economic and political growth and improvement for years to come.

“There’s a commitment here to the state that is sincere and permanent,” Allred said.

But administrators concluded that UNC could not sustain high-caliber academics, expansive research capabilities and community cohesiveness with 35,000 students on its central campus.

“There are people around the state who would love for us to grow,” said Steve Farmer, director of undergraduate admissions. But, Farmer added, the quality of students who are admitted to UNC most likely will decrease if yield rates remain the same and enrollment rises.

Each year, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions conducts a survey of admitted students to gain insight into their final decision-making process. The most recent survey examined how enrollment changes might alter that decision.

The results painted a picture not unknown to admissions officials. The highest-achieving, most academically talented students were the first to say no when enrollment increased. While most students consider student population when applying to schools, the brightest scholastic stars are those who want closer relationships with professors and a smaller student body.

“I think students — really talented students — want small classes,” Farmer said.

As a major research institution with a strong undergraduate emphasis on a liberal arts education, UNC is a magnet for students who are interested in both.

“It lets us offer students the best of both worlds,” Farmer said. “The students who are attracted to Carolina understand that.”

While the survey affirmed administrators’ general expectations, Farmer said it is important for University leaders to remain open-minded to other perceptions.

“It’s hard to express in data points an issue of feeling.”

On a warm afternoon last September,

Ben Ostrow sat in Jackson Hall thumbing through admissions literature with his father. The two had made their way from Baltimore the night before and had spent the morning touring Duke University. After traversing Tobacco Road, they waited to be escorted along the brick paths of UNC.

Ostrow, a senior in high school, said he is more attracted to midsize universities and planned to send his admission essays to the likes of Vanderbilt University, Duke, the University of Virginia and possibly UNC.

“Twenty-seven thousand — that’s a lot of people,” Ostrow said. “It just seems like you’d get lost in that many people.”

Coming from Maryland, Ostrow said he had heard very positive remarks about UNC’s academics, and he noted that the University’s average class size is less than he expected. But, Ostrow said, his heart hopes for life on a smaller campus.

For those students who have heard about UNC much of their lives, size of the student body seems to play less of a role.

Jane Chaffee, a senior in high school from Greenville, waited for the same tour as Ostrow.

Though she said her entire family has attended UNC, Chaffee planned to apply to mostly midsized schools such as Barnard College, Northwestern University and Duke.

“I kind of like the midsize colleges, but it definitely doesn’t rule out Carolina for me,” Chaffee said.

Talking to UNC students, Chaffee had heard the campus’s diversity — in academics, campus organizations and race — is a great perk that comes with its size.

Though growth often is an accepted price of improvement, administrators say it is important for the University to keep its ideals at the forefront of any change.

“There are some schools that have grown a lot who wake up one day and say, ‘How did we get here?’” Allred said.

“There’s obviously the notion of losing what Carolina is all about. Yes, it’s a big school, but it’s still a place where people come and feel like they fit in.”