Admissions Office
The goal of the Admissions Office is to identify, recruit, select, and enroll the best students in science, engineering and technology in the world.
We admit all undergraduate students (freshmen and transfers) and serve as a clearinghouse for graduate application paperwork. We work closely with the Student Financial Services Office, the Academic Resource Center, the Registrar's Office, the President's Office, the Alumni Association, the Office of Minority Education, and the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid at various times throughout the year, and with other offices in DUE, DSL, Facilities, and academic departments during Campus Preview Weekend.
Accomplishments
We had 10,549 freshman applicants, a decrease of 1 percent over last year, primarily due to the 1 percent decrease in early action applicants. This amounts to a leveling-off of applications over the past three years, a phenomenon shared by other technical universities as interest in computer science has dropped recently.
We admitted 1,734 students (16 percent of the applicant pool) to enroll a freshman class of 1,000, but our yield went up, and we will enroll about 1015 freshmen. To ensure that we enroll a total of 1,020, as requested by the Enrollment Management Group, we admitted 5 transfer students only.
Our freshman yield stands at 59 percent, up from 57 percent last year. This reverses the declining yield pattern of the past three years.
Diversity in the incoming class is very strong:
- 44 percent are women, a record high percentage
- 17 percent are underrepresented minorities
- 28 percent are Asian Americans
- 52 percent are Caucasian
- 7 percent are international, representing 48 countries
Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) was the largest and most successful ever. A record 910 students attended accompanied by a record of 754 parents. Overall yield of the participants of CPW was 74 percent (up from 70 percent for the previous two years). This accounted for our higher enrollment yield. For the first time, yields for students who were hosted in dorms (74 percent) were nearly identical to those of students in FSILGs (75 percent), during CPW.
Recruitment efforts have been consolidated and reorganized. Under an associate director for recruitment, our recruitment team of four assistant directors and three admissions counselors has increased outreach to minority populations, females, and academic superstars by 10 percent over previous years. These efforts should result in more applications over the next three admissions cycles.
Year One of our four-year publications plan is complete. We produced three new publications—one for 10th graders, one about financial aid to go to juniors with the Viewbook, and one for visitors to campus. Redesign work on our Admissions Office web site began this year. We completed the design and production of the new admitted freshman web site and expanded functionality to the EC web site for our Educational Counselors
The Educational Council (EC) Office has a new director who has already begun redesigning EC goals, training and outreach. Five percent more alumni were appointed as ECs this year, for a record 2,093 currently serving. Women now make up 32 percent of the ECs, up from 27 percent last year. Seven new minority ECs were added this year to bring the minority EC number to 76.
We hired Edgewater Technologies to evaluate our workflow and to recommend the most appropriate technologies for recruiting, admitting and enrolling undergraduates. As a result of their study, we made a few immediate changes in the way we work.
Staffing Changes
The Admissions Office is made up of 15 administrative, 1 temporary administrative, and 21 support staff. This year we hired 5 new administrative staff members—3 females and 2 males; 1 Hispanic female, 2 white females; 1 Hispanic male and 1 white male.
We hired 7 support staff: 6 females and 1 male.