ADMISSIONS: SHOOTING FOR STARS
But this, of course, is the proposal and
not the marriage. Many of the students
Carolina wants are sifting through a small
pile of acceptance letters. For some of
them, the courting process started months
ago. When admissions readers see a hot
one, they hit the phone or the e-mail
immediately to say, “We just read your
application, and while our decisions won’t
be final until January, we think you’re a
great candidate.”
“These kids have a lot of choices,” says
Admissions Director Steve Farmer. “We
want to reach them first.”
Back in the day when we of fairly
undistinguished high school credentials
would not be surprised to get an acceptance letter, many of the brainy and the
driven among us were looking at better
out-of-state colleges. Those students now
consider Carolina right along with the
Ivies and the other elites. It’s a happy situation to be among the best, but one in
which, as it continues to grow, the University finds itself challenged to maintain.
For fall 2007, 73 percent of the state’s
students making 1300 or better on the
SAT (the math and reading components)
and 86 percent of those at 1400 or higher
applied. A commissioned study of UNC
admissions completed last year said that rate
is so high that UNC is not likely to continue to improve on its success at getting
North Carolina’s best students to apply —
and that, as enrollment grows, it will be dif-
ficult to uphold those numbers.
There is an interesting cycle at work that
could, as much as anything, define Carolina’s
quality in the near future: The first priority
among those with a lot of good choices is
not the spring blooms in McCorkle Place
or kegs or what goes on in the Smith Center, and it isn’t the abundance of lab space or
how good the professors are. It is this: How
good are the students sitting next to me in
class? And they like the idea that people better than you make you better.
At a presentation last fall, Farmer
showed a slide that said that any perceived
decline in the quality of the student body
or in the quality of the student experience
here “will hurt us.” The slide said “hurt.”
Farmer used the word “kill.”
The applications are better, as usual. But
now, it’s all about yield. It’s nervous time in
admissions.
On Jan. 9, Farmer sent Chancellor
Holden Thorp ’ 86 another list of kids to
call.
Students recruiting students
The parents really want him to go to
Carolina. But when Thorp called their son,
he said, Carolina’s lack of an engineering
school was a problem.
“I explained to him the virtues of a science major that has a liberal arts component, followed by graduate work in engineering,” Thorp said. “The engineers are
going to be managers one day. I think
there’s a strong case to be made that this is
a better way to go.”
The family drove to Chapel Hill and
spoke with Thorp in person.
The chancellor’s time is expensive, but
Farmer sends him names and phone numbers in batches of five. He thinks Thorp is
the first chancellor to make calling
prospects a priority. He called some last fall
just to urge them to apply.
The highest-performing students hit the
radar in the admissions offices of the best
schools years before they start gathering
applications. They start forming bonds with
schools early, and admissions officials are
starting to talk about developing a “brand
name” with them. Carolina holds a summer camp for eighth-graders recommended by middle school counselors and
teachers. It’s no longer we-hope-you-come; it’s we’re-coming-to-get-you.
The 2009 blitz has begun. Every admitted student can expect a letter or an e-mail
every couple of weeks, a phone call from a
current student, and they’ll be kept abreast
of events on campus just for them.
Current students use blogs to write them
poems, share details from their classes and
make sure they see the video of the rave
that broke out in the library during exams.
Admitted students can come to campus
twice in the winter to interact with faculty,
attend classes and have lunch with Carolina
students.
The real hot shots get more.
Last fall, 14 academic departments participated in “faculty days” in which prospects
who have done assigned reading in advance
spend the morning in a structured program
with department faculty and the afternoon
meeting with current students.
