Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2009

with a clearer picture of what life really is like in Chapel Hill.

“Coming here and seeing and interacting and then saying, ‘This isn’t for me,’ that’s OK, but we want them to see,” said recruiter Andrew Parrish.

The stakes, as UNC plans to grow its enrollment to 33,000 from 28,000 over the next decade, are high.

Assuming the 18 percent cap on out-of-state admissions (which is not an issue for many of Carolina’s competitors) will not change, UNC could see declines in applicant quality. The study group’s report said the number of top SAT scorers in the state had changed little in the last 10 years and was not likely to grow substantially in the years ahead.

Of one thing, admissions officials are certain: Students inquiring about application and those poring over multiple acceptances are watching those statistics. If they sense the slightest decline, they could lose interest quickly.

Money as no object

“I speak for all of us who could not afford to go to Duke, and would not have even if we could have afforded it.”

Charles Kuralt ’ 55 got the big laugh at the UNC Bicentennial celebration. But his zinger is not on the top 10 list at the admissions office. More of the 17-year-olds who come through the doors at Jackson Hall are sizing Carolina up against Duke. And Harvard and Princeton and Stanford. These days, courtesy of the generous endowments the elite private schools have amassed, lots more of them can afford it.

Consider this line in a 2007 message from President Richard Brodhead to the Duke student body: “Duke is eliminating parent contributions for families who earn less than $60,000 a year.

“Undergraduates from families with total incomes below $40,000 will have no loan packaged into their financial aid. The loan component of aid will be reduced for families with incomes from $40,000 up to $100,000 on a graduated basis.”

And Duke received 17 percent more applications this year than last year, the largest increase ever.

The school that pioneered the
work-study program that offers low-

income students a chance to graduate debt-free — Carolina, with its Carolina Covenant — is competing with Davidson and Vanderbilt, which recently have eliminated loans; unlike the covenant, which has guidelines based on a percentage of the federal poverty level, there is no criteria at these elite schools. Farmer seriously doubts a public school the size of Carolina could do this.

So what’s UNC doing? Stepping up recruitment of bright students whose parents likely didn’t go to college — who may assume Carolina is beyond their reach.

UNC is not what you call unhealthy when it comes to available financial aid. Need-based aid from the state has increased 849 percent across the UNC System and in the state’s community college system in the past 11 years. Carolina sets aside about 35 percent of every tuition increase for aid. The covenant became a popular target for private donors, so much so that most of that money is now put into an endowment.

When the admissions office got a no-strings $25,000 grant from the Triad Foundation, Farmer decided to use it to improve recruitment of first-generation college students and those from low-income families. Admissions is setting up a one- or two-day event to bring these students to the campus and will pay transportation for some.

“We don’t want them to think they can’t afford to come to see Carolina for themselves,” Farmer said. “We don’t want to lose a kid because we failed to help them make the connection between themselves and Carolina.”

In another program, young Carolina alumni are working to make connections between low-income students and college — any college. The Carolina College Advising Corps has hired 18 recent graduates and given them each two North Carolina high schools to mine for prospects who might have set aside the idea of college because of cost. The Carolina corps and the companion National College Advising Corps, which reaches high schools in other states, is based in