The class of 2010 may not have been lauded as the "best class ever," but they did benefit from stepped-up recruiting efforts. Nearly 400 students received personalized letters of acceptance, and significantly more students from disadvantaged backgrounds were flown in for campus visits last year, according to Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73.
"Because admissions is getting so tight, everybody is trying significantly harder to get in the students who have been admitted," Miller said.
North Carolina native Katie Phillips '10 said that of the seven schools she applied to, representatives from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University made special contact with her after she was admitted, providing information about campus visits. Despite their efforts, Phillips said, she did not visit either campus because she was already set on Brown.
Frankie Martinez '10, a California native, said both the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles called his home and urged him to matriculate. But did Brown make a similar effort? "Not so much," Martinez said. "I probably got a phone call every day from Berkeley and UCLA."
Still, Martinez did have some contact with the University. "Different student groups and programs like (the Third World Center) called me saying, 'Come here, come here,'" Martinez said, adding that the Third World Welcome is a "real selling point" for Brown.
Though Brown did not recruit him as heavily as other schools, the University did provide funding for him to attend A Day on College Hill, Martinez said.
After months of waiting for admissions decisions, Martinez said being courted by the schools he had been hoping would accept him was a "weird" experience.
But Miller said prospective students are deserving of the attention. "I think it's a nice culmination for four years of hard work to have a bunch of colleges say, 'We really want you to come join us and have that opportunity,'" Miller said. "It sends a nice message that if you work hard, schools care about you and they recruit you."
This year's recruiting efforts preceded an increase in the admission yield - the percentage of accepted students who enrolled in the University. This figure was 58 percent for the class of 2010, up from 54.5 percent last year, according to Miller.
Consequently, the class includes 90 to 100 more students than other classes, Miller said. Due in part to the large number of students who enrolled, Miller said no students were admitted from the waitlist - an "anomaly" from most years' admissions cycles.
The high yield is a useful gauge of the "health of an institution," said Miller, who added that attempts to increase yield are not "rank-driven." (U.S. News and World Report has stopped including yield in its rankings.)
This year's high yield and large class size do not necessarily indicate a smaller class for next year's applicants, Miller said. So far the admissions process and patterns remain mostly unchanged from last year, though Miller said admissions representatives will visit an increased number of areas with "larger cohorts of first-generation college students."
In addition to heightened outreach from the admissions office, Julen Harris '08, vice president of the Bruin Club and a coordinator of last semester's ADOCH, said student-run efforts to attract admitted students also increased last year.
For the first time this year, admitted high school seniors could ask Bruin Club leaders questions through an online message board on the admissions Web site. Prospective students could also address questions to Bruin Club leaders through AOL Instant Messenger, which proved a popular program, Harris said.
Once admitted, students could also participate in events for potential first-years that included lunch with professors and admissions officers as well as special tours that brought groups into dorm rooms - territory not included on the standard campus tour.
Last spring's ADOCH event attracted 907 students and 682 parents - about 30 more students than the previous year, according to Associate Director of Admission C. Darryl Uy.
But having more attendees will not necessarily change the ADOCH program, Harris said. "All that changes as far as numbers is that we may need more freshmen hosts and ... enough food," she said.
In recent years, roughly 70 percent of ADOCH attendees have enrolled in the fall.
"A lot of students really love the ADOCH video that's shown at the opening ceremony," Harris said, adding that several indicated on evaluation forms that "the movie just pumped them up about wanting to come here."
Many students at ADOCH were on their way to or from other colleges' comparable programs, Harris said. "But that's fine, that's what they should do," she said. "We want them to make an informed decision."
Some admitted students mentioned other universities' programs on their evaluations, often describing ADOCH as less structured than comparative events that were "more like summer camp, where everyone did everything together."
"The way we saw it is that's sort of the flavor of Brown," Harris said.
