Promoting Access and Diversity in a Competitive Environment

1. Promoting Access and Diversity in a Competitive Environment Ted Spencer Associate Vice Provost and Director of Admission Chris Lucier Director of Recruitment and Operations

2. Agenda • Demonstrate how Descriptor PLUS ™ can help identify underrepresented populations during the evaluation process • Potential impacts of using DP • Next steps • Descriptor PLUS™ for recruitment and outreach • Employing other tools to simplify the application process to enhance access • Electronic submission of transcripts

3. Geodemography • Drives consumer marketing • “people with similar cultural backgrounds, means, and perspectives naturally gravitate toward one another or form relatively homogeneous communities.” • Does not consider college-bound behavior Source: Descriptor PLUS ™ : An Educationally Relevant Geodemographic Tagging Service. The College Board

4. Descriptor PLUS ™ • Educational Neighborhoods (EN) • Educationally relevant geodemographic clusters (30) • Begins with socioeconomic data and includes academic and curricular interest data • Unique and relevant characteristics of prototypic college-bound students and their behavior related to college-choice • 30 clusters =>180,000+ neighborhoods • High School Clusters • College choice is driven by characteristics of the student within their neighborhood, but also within the context of their high school • Academic/curricular indicators, historical patterns of college choice, student interests, as well as socioeconomic and mobility factors • 30 clusters =>27,000+ schools • 150 attributes, or individual pieces of information, now exist for both Educational Neighborhoods and High Schools Source: Descriptor PLUS ™ : An Educationally Relevant Geodemographic Tagging Service. The College Board

5. Identify “represented” and “underrepresented” clusters • Tag ’04 and ’05 enrolled classes • Enrolled because that defines your academic community • Certain trends clear • Define the difference between represented and underrepresented

6. Educational Neighborhoods

7. High Schools

8. Do we treat all underrepresented clusters the same? • Some underrepresented clusters reflect high SES – access and opportunity not a problem • Define high priority underrepresented clusters • Access is important • Socioeconomic factors • Not the sole factor – should tie with other information about the student or school

9. High Priority Educational Neighborhood Clusters

10. High Priority High School Clusters

11. EN and HS Cluster Tagging available to reviewer

12. Ties together with 1st gen., low SES

13. Potential Impacts of utilizing Descriptor PLUS ™ • Yield • Their behavior will have to be different than other students in that cluster – “going against the grain” • Increase number of admitted students with financial need • Does not replace affirmative action • Treat high priority clusters the same • Public Relations • Enroll more students in underrepresented areas • Change perceptions

14. Next Steps • Tag prospects • Tagging strategy - timing • Null files • Inaccuracies – student generated errors • Recruitment • Targeted communications at underserved populations • Focused programming • Financial aid information

15. Electronic Transcripts - Make it easier to apply and speed decision • Link to electronic transcript • GPA recalculated

16. Display by year

17. Display by course