ADMISSIONS: SHOOTING FOR STARS
First, admissions
must win the
war against the
misconceptions
that UNC is
even bigger than
it is, that it’s too
hard to get into,
that it’s 75
percent female
and that it’s
90 percent
North
Carolinians.
Next, it must
show conclusively
that it can
behave like a
smaller school.
ing global warming. Or major in American
studies while addressing poverty or youth
violence.”
In his installation address, Thorp was
speaking of what UNC can do for the
world. It’s also apropos of the idealism that
motivates high-achieving 17-year-olds
who come to college with the idea they
can help solve the world’s most vexing
problems.
Of the North Carolina students in the
top tier, 82 percent who are admitted to
Carolina but choose another school select
one with fewer than 15,000 undergraduates.
First, admissions must win the war
against the misconceptions that UNC is
even bigger than it is (nearly half of those
who inquire and half who are admitted
think it’s already at the 10-year projection
of 33,000); that it’s too hard to get into;
that it’s 75 percent female (an exaggeration
of the current 60 percent); and that it’s 90
percent North Carolinians (which can discourage out-of-staters due to perceived
futility and in-staters who want more geographically and culturally diverse peers).
Next, it must show conclusively that it
can behave like a smaller school. When
faced with the too-big argument in a
conversation with a student, Thorp said,
“we talk about the minor in entrepreneurship, the minor in global health.”
The role of admissions now is
that of intermediary between
what the University has and
what the prospect needs and
wants. As Vice Chancellor of
Student Affairs Peggy Jablon-ski said, “It takes a village.”
Ultimately the selling job
will have to have another
GAA Helps
Recruit
The GAA sponsors a variety
of programs to
help throughout
the admissions
process, from
recruiting applicants to encouraging admitted students to enroll.
The GAA, in collaboration with
the Office of
Undergraduate
Admissions, offers
a one-day Alumni
Admissions
Forum for rising
ninth-, 10th- and
11th-graders to
help ease parents
and students into
the admissions
process. Since
1999, the GAA
and the admissions office have
solicited alumni
volunteers to
assist in the
recruitment
efforts in specific
regions of the
country. And each
spring, the GAA
hosts receptions
for admitted
students. This
year, events are
scheduled in
seven N.C. cities.
More about the
GAA and admissions is available
online at
alumni.unc.edu/
admissions_
programs.
component — academic programs tailored to the brightest students.
For example, UNC is crafting a pilot
program it thinks might appeal to a motivated student who brings plenty of
advance placement credits — graduate in
three years and use the fourth and part of
a fifth year for graduate school. It could
be great for those who want to do graduate study that complements the undergraduate major — such as public health,
language, city and regional planning.
“It keeps them at Carolina for four
years but it might challenge them to do
more than an undergraduate degree,” said
Bobbi Owen, senior associate dean for
undergraduate education. Owen said 53
students graduated after the third year last
May. “More of them could do that.” She
added that some elite private schools have
such a program, but she did not know of
a public university that did.
Farmer and Steve Reznick, associate
dean of undergraduate education, are
leading a study to determine, among other
things, how to simplify the path to getting
involved in research as an undergraduate,
how most effectively to expand the honors program, and whether to introduce
faculty-in-residence programs.
“We’re gonna need every trick in the
bag,” Farmer said. “Or every trick we
might put in the bag.”
DAVID E. BROWN ’ 75 is the Review’s
senior associate editor. The Review’s cover
story in the November/December 2008
issue also addressed enrollment expansion.
Each spring, the Review writes about
admissions; past articles are available
online to GAA members at
alumni.unc.edu/admissions.
