In a typical year, over 5,000 students apply for undergraduate admission to RPI. Of those, RPI admits about 3,900 and then about 1,250 become matriculated students. Though the application evaluation process is not yet done, Karen Long, acting dean of Enrollment Management, indicated that about 6,800 students applied this year—a 20 percent increase over two years ago.
RPI is not alone in this increase. The University of Vermont received 17,616 applications this year—up 25 percent or 4,600 since last year. Long attributed this change to students generally applying to a wider gamut of colleges than in the past. She said the differences at RPI in particular relate to Rensselaer making it onto more potential students’ lists. She indicated this might be at least partially attributable to a growing interest in the Humanities and Social Science programs.
Although the number of applications is significantly up, Long felt that the office, which is fully-staffed, has been able to handle the workload well, especially since electronic applications are now fed directly into RPI’s Banner system upon being submitted, greatly reducing admissions’ data-entry needs.
The admissions process at RPI primarily involves staff members evaluating the clear-cut decisions and then meeting in committee to discuss borderline cases and other issues related to getting the optimal 1,250 students. Where admissions staff used to page through paper files, they now evaluate scanned admissions material on their computers alongside those automatically entered into Banner by students applying online.
Due in part to the greater number of applications, visitor numbers and tours are up this year, but not nearly proportionally to the application increase itself. Long indicated that, in her experience, students who simply have RPI on a long list will tend to take tours following their acceptance rather than during this time right before acceptances go out. By virtue of being on more students’ lists, RPI has had to create one of its own—a waiting list, though Long said that it will see limited use. Two years ago, a waiting list was used for the first time in many years, though last year it was only used for a handful of applicants.
In order to ensure the ethnic, gender, geographical, and intellectual student diversity called for in The Rensselaer Plan, RPI admissions has a presence across the country with recruiters at college fairs and high schools. Less direct means like informational packets for guidance counselors and science and math teachers are also used. Financial incentives such as the Rensselaer Medal program also provide a significant enticement to students whose deciding point is the financial package offered.
Besides pursuing all of the traditional communication fronts, admissions also works at communicating with the people they don’t hear about until an application is received. Long mentioned that these students tend to do all of their research online and find resources like the PolyBlogs—web logs authored by RPI Student Ambassadors—useful. To communicate with these students as well as those who are undecided even upon being accepted, admissions will hold the “Accepted Student Celebration” on April 8. Additionally, during the following two weeks, high school freshman, sophomores, and juniors are invited to have a look at RPI because “we don’t recruit one class at a time,” said Long.
Though admissions has not yet completed accepting students and communicating with them, it is expected that last year’s 24 percent female and 9 percent ethnic minority acceptance rates will not change significantly.
