Imperative IV: Attracting and Supportinga Top-Tier Student Body
On a large wall in the University?s recruiting/admissions office suite stretches a colorful maze of promotional brochures, fliers and postcards. James Steen, director of admission services, quickly summarizes who gets which materials when ? basically a year-round mailing system for prospective students.
More than 750,000 pieces are mailed each year, Steen says. ?We have to keep Baylor in front of them as much as possible and communicate ? in part through these publications ? that we?re interested in them,? he says. ?You can?t skimp on anything and still be competitive nationally.?
This highly organized approach to seeking students is vital to the University, says Dr. Charles S. Madden, vice president for University relations and one of the people who helped give recruiting and admissions a face-lift in 1997. It?s also an invaluable tool for achieving Baylor 2012?s fourth imperative ? to attract and support a top-tier student body.
?It went from being a static approach to being an evolutionary process,? says Dr. Madden, who oversaw enrollment management until last September. ?Every year we change something, and some years we change a lot of things.?
Recruiting and retaining outstanding students is important to the University for several reasons, Dr. Madden says. ?The quality of the school is going to be largely determined by two things ? faculty and students,? he says. ?If you can get the best students, not only will they demand the best from the faculty, but they?ll demand the best from each other.?
Well-rounded applicants
Academic achievement ? high SAT test scores and GPAs ? is just one facet of what Baylor is looking for in a student, Steen says. Other attributes include Christian character, commitment to service and potential for leadership, all of which are a little more challenging to gauge, he says.
Dr. Madden agrees. ?They have to have a little bit of everything. You can?t be such a good student that we?re not looking at the other things. You can?t be such a wonderful person that we don?t care whether you can do the work or not. Earlier in the process now we?re looking at the whole person.?
In fact, the entire process is starting earlier than ever before, Dr. Madden says. One avenue for developing relationships with younger students is through a program called the Leadership Institute. The idea, which is similar to programs offered by other universities, is to target prospective students who have leadership potential before they?ve made decisions about where they will attend college, says Dr. Eileen Hulme, vice president for student life.
?It?s part of expanding Baylor?s outreach,? she says of the program, which the University plans to pilot this summer. ?Some of the students who come to the institute may choose to go to another university, but we would still have a chance to be part of their lives.?
Through recommendations from youth ministers, teachers and alumni, Baylor is hoping to pursue relationships with future students who already are living out their values, Dr. Hulme says.
?What we?re trying to do is create a student body that influences each other in a positive way ? so that when they leave Baylor, they have had an experience outside the classroom that mirrors the excellence inside the classroom,? she says. ?It?s really important that we proactively go after the students who will shape our student culture in a way that reflects what?s near and dear to Baylor.?
Self-reliance, service
This goal also is being addressed in the revised essay portion of the application process, Dr. Madden says. Whereas in the past, essays were used mostly to get to know the applicant, now the answers are being scrutinized more closely for certain responses, such as those that exhibit self-reliance or service, he says.
?Between identifying people really early and getting to know them through the essay process, that?s our best shot right now,? he says.
One misconception college-bound students might have is that the more activities they list on their applications, the more likely they are to be admitted, Dr. Madden says.
?Listing 400 high school activities is probably not the way. Having the pastor say, ?This is a good kid,? probably isn?t the way,? he says. ?The kid who found a problem in the community and did something about it and maybe gave up some other activity to do it ? that probably makes more of an impression.?
Financial aid estimates
The financial aid process is another aspect of admissions that?s been overhauled, Dr. Madden says. He acknowledges that, in the past, prospective students had to wait far too long to find out how much assistance Baylor could offer them. ?At one point, it was taking more than five months from the time a student was accepted before he or she could get any kind of financial aid estimate. The average now is more like five or six days,? he says.
The University also re-evaluated its policies on financial aid packages it could offer students, he says. ?We went back and analyzed a couple of years? offers that we made and what it took to get a student at a particular academic and need level,? he says. ?We?re trying to help people go to college.?
The concept of an affordable, yet exceptional, education is one that Dr. Madden says he has heard much about since Baylor approved a flat-rate tuition structure, effective fall 2002. In its October meeting, the Board of Regents increased the 2003-04 tuition by 6.7 percent, to $16,750. Nearly once a week, he says, he receives phone calls from parents who want to know why the changes occurred.
?The only thing more costly to you is giving your child a bad education,? he tells parents. ?You can?t replace it, and so throughout his life, he?ll pay for it. It?s an investment, and you only get one chance to do it right.?
Last fall, enrollment numbers decreased slightly from fall 2001, but not unexpectedly so, says Cliff Neel, assistant vice president and Baylor?s director of academic scholarships and financial aid. In part, this was due to a slowdown of the economy; it also resulted from the University?s desire to cap enrollment while hiring more faculty members ? thus, lowering the student-faculty ratio to 17 to 1 from 18 to 1. And, despite a tuition increase, the average family income of the 2002 fall entering class was 3 percent less than that of the year before, Neel says.
The tuition change is a result of a market competing for faculty and technology, Dr. Madden says. ?If we don?t have adequate technology, then we can?t provide it. If we have less than the best faculty, then it doesn?t matter what else we have,? he says. ?You can?t get your tuition low enough that everybody can afford it. What you can do is get it high enough so that you can help everybody afford it.?
Approximately 75 percent of Baylor students receive some sort of financial aid out of the more than $145 million available annually, Neel says. Freshman Natalie Stone, from Mount Vernon, is one such student. As the eldest of four children in a one-income family, she knew that financial aid would dictate where she would spend her undergraduate years.
Baylor devotees
?I?ve loved Baylor since I was little,? says Stone, who plans on majoring in political science and is considering law school. ?My dad said, ?I know you want to go to Baylor, but you?re going to have to get some scholarships.?? Her high SAT score and GPA enabled her to receive scholarships that cover almost all her tuition.
Baylor will continue to attract students like Stone who are lifelong devotees ? the ?heart and soul of what we do,? Dr. Hulme says ? but also wants to find ways to expand its boundaries to other top-tier students who otherwise might not know about the University.
?We can have excellent students and we can have students of character, faith and values, but we have to go after them. We can?t just say, ?If we build it, they?ll come.? That?s not the way it works,? she says. ?What we?re going to find is, if we do our job right and attract the right students, the Baylor campus will be a very different place than a lot of other places.?