Carolina Alumni Review - March/April 2009

“The area we have to grow in is these high-ability students,” said Kyle Brazile, an admissions recruiter, “getting them to campus, showing them what’s possible and keeping them from going out of state.” (The best North Carolina students who don’t go to Carolina go to Duke, Davidson, Wake Forest or out of state — rarely to another UNC System school. Sixty-one percent of the state’s top students who apply to UNC have as their first or second choice a school outside the state.)

For the past two years, Kenan-Flagler Business School has offered some admitted students guaranteed admission as a way to get those with a stated interest in business to say yes to Carolina. The normal process entails application during the sophomore year. To maintain the guarantee, a student has to complete nine business-related courses in the first two years and keep a 3.0 grade point average. The program accounts for about 15 of the 330 students admitted each year.

Most who got the guarantee say it was a factor in attracting them to UNC, said David Ravenscraft, Fulton Global Business Distinguished professor. “I think we’re satisfied this is the way to go,” he said.

Farmer said he expects other professional schools will follow suit, pointing out that this is one enticement that “costs us nothing.”

Michael Kennedy ’ 79, vice chair of the UNC Board of Visitors, was approached by stu-

dent body President J.J. Raynor and trustee John Ellison ’ 69 about the problem of losing top high school students to other universities. This started a pilot project in Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and Kennedy’s hometown of Atlanta to target applicants with phone calls from prominent alumni in those cities.

“We are establishing a relationship with the top-performing students and their parents to guide them through the admissions process,” Kennedy said, “introducing them to the school in a much more human way.”

Recently the project, which includes some 35 Board of Visitors members, held meetings with the prospects in those cities. Current students fanned out to talk about the honors program, small classes and opportunities for undergraduate research.

If real estate is location, location, location, recruitment is students, students, students.

As Farmer said, he can talk to a student all day and not have the impact Raynor can have in a short conversation.

Two years ago, admissions began a “ student for a day” program in which applicants — picked from the top of the test scores, class rank and other measures — shadow current students, following them to class and through their extracurricular and social activities.