Yale Admissions refocuses its recruitment efforts

With its early decision deadline less than a month away, Yale's Office of Undergraduate Admissions has devised a new plan to attract the world's best and brightest students. Although applications are always expected to pour in from states like New York and California this year, there are numerous regions—both domestic and foreign—where the Yale name isn't so well known.

To address this issue, the admissions office recently created the position of director of recruitment. The new job does not include a voice in the admissions selection process, but focuses specially on reaching out to students in places where Yale hasn't been historically popular.

REBECCA ROSENTHAL/YH The Office of Undergradute Admissions hopes its new director of recruitment will bring students from afar to Yale's doorstep.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Richard Shaw claims that the new position will have "significant freedoms" that other positions lack. He believes that, in the past, being involved in both the recruiting and the evaluation processes of admissions has made it more difficult for current admissions officers to work on effective outreach strategies.

According to Shaw, because the new recruiter will not work as a traveling officer, or "road-runner," he or she will be able to determine in which parts of the country and world Yale needs to be more rigorously marketed. That, in turn, will help with the coordination of outreach activities, planning on-campus initiatives, and working with professionals to expand Yale's resources on the Internet.

"The creation of the position doesn't suggest that we haven't been successful [in certain regions], but indicates that we have found more time needs to be spent on these issues," Shaw said. He added that the position will allow the Admissions Office to continue to focus on students who come from populations already familiar with the Yale name, as well as "making sure that the kid in upstate New York, Wyoming, or east Texas knows what we are about."

Although most universities do not have a counterpart to the new Yale position, Harvard has been more successful in recruiting students from locations that often send relatively few students to the Ivy League. One reason for that might be that Harvard is the only Ivy League school that admits foreign students on a need-blind basis, and, unlike Yale, it has an admissions website that is easily accessible for foreign students. "I like to think we're excellent, but of course so are other places," Marilyn McGrath Lewis, Harvard's director of admissions, said.

Matt Jackson, JE '00, hails from Montana, a state that some years sends only one or two students to Yale, does not believe that any new recruitment efforts are necessary for the University. "Yale doesn't have to recruit anywhere—not even in the desolate plains of Montana," he said.

Indeed, Jackson did not receive any mailings or phone calls from the University, nor did a representative visit his area. But, once he had contacted Yale, the University gave him the names and phone numbers of alumni in Montana.

But for Birkir Gunnarsson, MC '02, a native of Iceland, learning about Yale happened by chance. He was hanging out on an Internet chat channel when he met a girl who was a senior at Yale at the time. Gunnarsson was then able to get application forms from Yale, but did not receive any additional mailings or visits from representatives. The only phone call he received was from the disabilities office once he had been accepted.

Vanessa Herrera, SM '03, who lived in Hong Kong when applying to Yale and now calls El Salvador home, similarly had little contact with Yale until after she was admitted. She recalled that even before the application process started, "Princeton went to great lengths to recruit students in Hong Kong," sending representatives from the school across the globe. While Princeton's efforts yielded great success, Herrera noted that Yale's failure to recruit more vigorously in Hong Kong has led to a decline in applicants from her high school. After consistently sending students to Yale for several years, nobody from the Hong Kong International School matriculated at the University last year.

Both Gunnarsson and Herrera welcome the admission office's new position if it increases Yale awareness abroad. "Just the notion that somebody from [Yale] is showing interest in your area would be a great incentive for talented students," Gunnarsson said.

Alex Leeds, DC '02, feels that even in his home state of New Jersey, the new director could have an impact. He said that although he does not believe that recruiting or interest in Yale will ever lessen in New Jersey, "recruiting is an area where you never can have too little."

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