1) The meeting was called to order shortly after noon on Wed., May 17, in the Lower Level Conference Room of the John Chrystal Center.

 

2) Sumner provided a summary of Grinnell prospective students as represented in the Des Moines Register newspaper’s annual Academic All-Star edition. Since not all members of the Committee were present & some had questions, Sumner agreed to share the summary at the first meeting of the fall 2006 semester,

 

3) Sumner than provided a description/update on the entering class of new Grinnell students;

 

(A) 36.6% of applicants have been admitted thus far (transfer activity continuing),

 

(B) The decision to admit a few Wait List students was made the first week of May when Sumner surveyed 12-15 top colleges and discovered that all but 2 (CMC & Hamilton) had already gone to their WL (some even before May 1). Sumner feared that our yield might drop (currently at 29%) and if we needed to go to the WL later, the best students would no longer be available,

 

(C) Students of color; Currently 80 vs. 83 a year ago; 22 African–Americans vs. 24, 33 Asian-Americans vs. 28, 23 Latina/os vs. 31 and 2 Native Americans vs. 0,

 

(D) International students; 30 vs. 38

 

(E) Geographic breakdown; Mid-Atlantic 36 vs. 38, Mid-West 223 vs. 200 (IA 53 vs. 35, IL 63 vs. 47, MN 22 vs. 48), New England 18 vs. 18, South 38 vs. 31, West 68 vs. 71 (CA 19 vs. 27),

 

(F) Academic quality: SAT 1335 mean and 1370 median, ACT mean and median 31, and secondary school rank; 21% in top 1%, 42% in top 5%, 60% in top 10%, 90.2% in top 25%, and 100% in top 50%, and

 

(G) Sumner went on to add that these figures are as of May 17.

 

4) Regarding financial aid, Sumner reported the following; the College has bought down over $170,000 of senior debt (the most in many years), the cap on merit aid for new students of $1M is a bit over and much less than the previous year, the cap on aid to new international students of $1M is being maintained, and the demonstrated need of all admitted US students is being met, and,

 

5) Sumner concluded by reporting on 2 important summer retreats;1 for admission planning with the entire admissions staff, and 1 for all of the full-time College coaches and the admission administrative staff to discuss the mutual impact of the 2 departments.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 with a brief discussion of fall 2006 agenda items which Sumner noted.

--Jim Sumner