To some, AOL Instant Messenger is a way of staying in touch with friends. To others, it may be the perfect procrastination tool. For Ashley Greene '09, it's an innovative way of reaching out to the thousands of prospective students who consider Brown each year to give them a sense of life on College Hill.
"Not all of those students can visit Brown, so this is a way for prospective students to get answers from the comfort of their own home," said Greene, head of the high school networking branch of the Bruin Club.
The AIM networking program is set up to provide high school students a way of messaging current undergraduates with any questions they have about Brown. The Bruin Club asks volunteers to log on to AIM with an assigned Bruin Club screen name for two hours per business week.
"The benefit of the AIM Program is that it allows high school students the chance to chat with actual Brown students in real time and to ask questions that might otherwise go unanswered," said Elisha Anderson '98, associate director of the Office of Admission and the liaison between the Bruin Club and admission office.
"The program is under-utilized at the moment," Anderson said. "I think the larger world is unaware that we have an AIM networking program available."
Greene said AIM is only a "small portion" of the program right now, but after a Web page redesign next week, the addition of a direct link on the admission office's Web site "will hopefully increase traffic this year."
One of the Bruin Club's high school networking efforts is the high school and Talent Quest ambassador programs, which sends current students to high schools near their hometowns.
Other programs include Ask A Brown Student, which connects prospective and current students by e-mail, and the soon-to-be-revived Providence High Schools Outreach program, which brings high schoolers to campus to teach them about the college application process, in addition to the AIM networking program.
Rachel Kerber '10 - or BruinClub06, as she is known online - said she spoke to a dozen students this past semester, an increase from the three or four she spoke with all of last year.
"The students that message me always seem to have very specific questions ... about rooms, the open curriculum, parties, Providence. Once they get comfortable, some have asked me about financial aid and work study," she said.
Kerber said her conversations have ranged from five to 90 minutes. She has spoken to nearby students as well as some from California and one who only described his home as a "tiny town in the middle of Texas."
Kerber said she worried that the sense of invisibility provided by the Internet might lead prospective students to ask "crazy" questions, but she hasn't received any yet. She has, however, had several high school students contact her multiple times.
The most common question asked? "What are admissions officers looking for in an application," she said. "They ask me about SAT scores a lot too, but I tell them (as a Bruin Club rule) I can't answer that."
The Bruin Club hopes to build on the AIM networking concept to cater to international students, Greene said.
The project may expand to include MSN Messenger and Yahoo users, and Greene said she hopes to partner with the International Mentoring Program as well.
"The Bruin Club stays in close contact with the admission office, who tries to play out a lot of Boldly Brown," Greene said.
The Campaign for Academic Enrichment, publicized under the tagline Boldly Brown, is placing an emphasis on increasing the enrollment of international students.
