Admission and Financial Aid Committee
Summary of May 13, 2002 Meeting
1) Jim Sumner provided a summary of the current 2002 admission cycle, reporting that the entering class will be bigger than in recent years and as planned. He stated that his biggest concern about the entering group of new students is the lagging number of new students of color who have committed to enroll at the College this fall, especially African Americans. Other class quality indicators are positive.

2) The discussion of research presented at earlier meetings concerning the best predictors of success at he College prior to enrollment continued, aided in part by an analysis by Professor Cunningham. This discussion took the majority of the meeting time. In the end it was decided not to adopt firm SAT or ACT minimums for marginal applicants but rather to create a guide line to enable both the admission staff and the faculty Board on Admission to act in concert with the wishes of the Committee as representative of the student body and faculty, and in response to the data collected, reviewed and discussed by the Committee (especially during the spring semester, 2002). The guideline drafted, circulated in June to the Committee and adopted states;

THE STUDENT AND FACULTY COMMITTEE ON ADMISSION AND FINANCIAL AID RECOMMENDS THAT THE OFFICE OF ADMISSION USE THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINE WHEN CONSIDERING THE APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION OF STUDENTS WHO ARE NOT CLEARLY ADMISSIBLE OR DENIABLE: BECAUSE THE SCHOLASTIC ASSESSMENT TEST (SAT) MATHEMATICS SCORE MAY BE THE SINGLE GREATEST INDICATOR OF SUCCESS AT GRINNELL COLLEGE, NO MARGINAL APPLICANT SHOULD BE ADMITTED WHO EARNS AN SAT MATHEMATICS SCORES OF LESS THAN 500 (FIFTIETH PERCENTILE) AND/OR THE CORRESPONDING SCORE ON THE AMERICAN COLLEGE TEST (ACT).

3) The Committee voted to fully implement the new Advanced Scholars Program to enable capable local students to continue to take classes at the College at no cost to the students. A specific set of guidelines and an application were approved.

4) As time elapsed it was agreed to begin the fall semester with the 2 items still on the agenda;
(A) Continuation of the discussion from the April 29 meeting of international student admission and financial aid issues (to be led by Eric Staab), and
(B) Admission of College employees to degree candidacy (to be led by Jim Sumner).

The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 PM.

-Jim Sumner