Admissions, Retention and Financial Aid Committee

Minutes of the September 13, 2006 ARFAC Meeting

Present: Amundson, Freedman-Gurspan, Green, Kyle, McClanahan, Porterfield, Ruby, Strichartz, Vigen

1. The minutes from the meeting held on 5-10-06 were approved with friendly amendments.

2. Admissions update:
Michael Kyle reported on strategic goals for enrollment and offered a profile of the class of 2010 (based on tenth day enrollment figures).

Vision: Strategic Goals for Enrollment

  • Grow the applicant pool
  • Increase the number of students within pool for whom St. Olaf College is their first choice
  • Develop new markets from which to recruit students
  • Engage others more broadly and deeply in recruitment efforts

2006 Review of Domestic First-Year Students

Application Information as of August 22, 2006

  Women Men Total
Applications Initiated 1,988 1,461 3,449
Acceptances Offered 1,335 946 2,281
Net Deposits 436 356 792

Academic Credentials

  2006 2005
Size of Class 792 757
Yield Rate 34.7% 34.9%
Acceptance Rate 66.1% 74.0%

Rank in Class*

  2006 2005
Top 10% 51% 49%
Top 25% 83% 76%
Top 50% 99% 96%
Median Percentile Rank 90% 89%
Graduated 1st or 2nd 11% 10%

*Percentage of 622 Early Decision, Early Action and Regular enrollees presenting class rank

SAT Scores (n = 350)

  2006 2005
Verbal - Mean 644 645
Math - Mean 640 635
     
Verbal - Median 640 640
Math - Median 640 640

ACT Scores (n = 686)

  2006 2005

Composite
(Mean & Median)

28 27

Core Academic GPA

  2006 2005
4.00 21% 18%
3.50-3.99 55% 48%
3.00-3.49 20% 24%
2.50-2.99 3% 9%
Below 2.50 1% 1%
Average 3.67 3.60

Geographic Distribution

  2006 2005
Minnesota 58% 57%
Wisconsin 7% 9%
Iowa 4% 4%
Illinois 4% 4%
Total States 39 39

Multicultural Enrollment of new students*

  2006 2005
Asian/Pacific Islander 36 40
Native Hawaiian    
Black or African-American 9 11
Hispanic or Latino 14 10
Native American 1 3
Other 13 12
Total 73 76
% Mulitcultural 10% 11%

*Of those reporting ethnic information

Comment from member of ARFAC: We need to establish peer groups to ascertain what percentage of students is multicultural.

Religious Affiliation*

  2006 2005
All Lutheran Synods 49% 48%
E.L.C.A. 38% 41%
Catholic 17% 16%
Presbyterian 6% 7%
Methodist 5% 6%

*Of those reporting a religious affiliation

St. Olaf Family Background

  2006 2005
Parents 14% 13%
Parents/Siblings 25% 24%
Parents/Siblings/Relatives 31% 30%

Goals for 2006

  • Reduce enrollment to 730
  • Maintain or improve academic profile
  • Increase ethnic diversity
  • Increase geographic diversity
  • Improve gender balance

2006 Outcomes
(reflect all enrolled freshmen, not only those in the modeled population)

  • Increased freshman enrollment by 28 students (60 over goal)
  • Increased net tuition revenue by $443,000
  • Increased discount rate by 4 percentage points
    • Minnesota residents (Caucasian) increased 6 percentage points
    • Students of color increased 6 percentage points
  • Increased mean ACT to 28
    • Increased the number of enrolled students with ACT 26-35 by 11%
      (607 vs. 547)
    • Decreased the number of enrolled students with ACT 25 or less by 12%
      (192 vs. 219)
  • Decreased ethnic diversity by 1% (6 fewer students)
  • Maintained gender balance at 55/45
  • Maintained geographic diversity
    • 42% out-of-state

2007 Strategic Goals

  • Decrease freshman enrollment to 735
  • Maintain academic profile
  • Increase ethnic diversity to 80 students
  • Increase percentage of out-of-state students
  • Produce net comp fee revenue of $19.3 million
    • 6.5% increase in comp fee
    • 6.4% increase in tuition

Goals (Adjust downward the size of first year class)

  2007 2006
Size of Class 735 792

Goal (9% growth in applicant pool)

  Women Men Total
Applications Initiated 2,160 1,600 3,760
Acceptances Offered 1,200 925 2,125
Firm Acknowledgements 390 345 735
  (53%) (47%)  

Goal (Multicultural Enrollment)

  2007 2006
Asian/Pacific Islander 40 36
Native Hawaiian    
Black or African-American 12 9
Hispanic or Latino 17 14
Native American 4 1
Other 15 13
Total 88 73
% Mulitcultural 12% 10%

Goal (Class rank)

  2007 2006
Top 10% 50% 51%
Top 25% 84% 83%
Top 50% 99% 99%
Median Percentile Rank 91% 90%
Graduated 1st or 2nd 12% 11%

Goal (Core Academic GPA)

  2007 2006
4.00 21% 21%
3.50-3.99 57% 55%
3.00-3.49 20% 20%
2.75-2.99 2% 2%
2.50-2.74 0% 1%
Below 2.50 0% 1%
Average 3.71 3.67

Goal (Median SAT Score)

  2007 2006
Verbal 650 640
Math 650 640

Goal (Median ACT Score)

  2006 2005

Composite

28 28

Goal (Geographic Distribution)

  2007 2006
Minnesota 52% 58%
Wisconsin 6% 7%
Iowa 4% 4%
Illinois 8% 4%
Total States 45 39

Goal (Religious Affiliation)

  2007 2006
All Lutheran Synods 49% 49%
E.L.C.A. 38% 38%
Catholic 17% 17%
Presbyterian 6% 6%
Methodist 5% 5%

Financial Aid Optimization Analysis

Summary: Overall we’ve improved the academic profile of the class of 2010 but the number of students granted financial aid has also risen.

3. Faculty involvement in recruitment

  • Call for syllabi
  • Call for faculty to participate in panel sessions during five visit days in October

(Fall visit days had become too large, so the number of Open House days has been increased by adding Open House-like half-day programs.)

4. Discussion of ARFAC agenda for the 2006-2007 academic year:

What can we do to help the college with issues of size, scope and diversity? A number of issues were raised and it was decided that the group would determine a specific agenda for the year at the next ARFAC meeting.

  • We need to consider issues of size, composition, culture, and commitment to financial aid with respect to the student body. Can we afford to be need blind?
  • What can committed faculty members do to involve more faculty in recruitment efforts?
  • Need to preserve the St. Olaf experience, emphasize the value of education in speaking with prospective students and parents
  • Changing concept of diversity: observation that there are other types of diversity (religious, experience, sexual orientation) on campus
  • What role does diversity of faculty play in the college’s attempts to diversify the student body?
  • Involving faculty in financial aid issues. There are already initiatives in which faculty are involved. CIR students will be conducting research on self-help aspects of the application process, to trace trends in financial aid requests; for example, do students work, do students work off-campus, number of hours worked, amount of debt, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
A. Strichartz