August 1, 2000
To: Members of the Faculty
From: Jim Swartz, Chair, Admission and Student Financial Aid
Committee
RE: Committee Report
Preliminary
Enrollment Data
The
members of this committee included faculty Emily Moore, Jerry Lalonde, Paul
Munyon, and Elizabeth Dobbs, and students Ivy Chang, Michelle Durand, and Tony
Pham. The faculty and students on the
Committee met with Tom Crady and occasionally Arnold Woods, Tammy Hrasky, Eric
Staab, or Carol Trosset to provide needed information and analyses to the
committee. This year the Committee
remained in a fairly active role. I
would like to thank the 1999-00 committee members for serving on the committee
last year. I especially thank the
Admission Board faculty for their important, time-consuming efforts reviewing
application files.
The key issues for the committee were the search for a Dean
of Admission and Financial Aid and financial aid policy. Committee members were actively involved in
interviewing and discussions resulting in the selection of Jim Sumner as the
new Dean of Admission and Financial Aid.
Jim started his position in June, 2000.
This year the College expended considerable effort to
understand it’s financial aid policies, their implementation, and actual
results. The College made extensive use
of the firm Hartwick-Day in this analysis, and the Office of Institutional
Research participated as well. The
committee heard reports on financial aid policy from Arnold Woods and from
Hartwick-Day staff. The committee
discussed this data, our policies, and our apparent policies (from looking at
the results of our financial aid awards. Based upon suggestions from
Hartwick-Day, the Committee, and staff, a number of changes in awarding of
financial aid were made in order to try to optimize quality and use non-need
based aid to attract the students we are most interested in enrolling. While remaining completely need blind, and
fully meeting all demonstrated need, the College was able to enroll a class of
higher quality students while expending less on non-need based aid.
Next year, the committee will examine the effect of changing
the promise of contribution score, the effect of changes in awarding financial
aid, and other strategies for improving the applicant pool and yield.
The Committee would like to thank numerous faculty for
participating in the entire admission process including meeting with
prospective students, attending various admission receptions and events,
reviewing files for various scholarships, participating in scholarship
selection processes, and contacting admitted students. We believe that all of these efforts
contribute to bringing a stronger student body to Grinnell College.
Attached to this report is a report from the
Admission staff on changes that were made this year and preliminary enrollment
data.
Enrollment Profile
as of August 14, 2000
Application Statistics
The
following statistics provide comparative data for the fall entering classes,
1992-2000, including the breakdown of Part I and actionable applications. (The
two-part application was implemented in 1993.)
“Total
Apps” include all applications, regardless of whether or not the application
was completed. “Actionable Apps” include only completed applications. Populations representing the difference
include a) applicants who submitted only
the Part I, b) applicants who withdrew their application and c) those who
failed to submit all required documents.
Entering New Class
Quality
The
following charts illustrate quality of the entering class using secondary
school rank. Statistics are provided by both quintile and decile and include
comparative data from previous years.
Entering Class Quality using Secondary School Rank -- by Quintile
Fall Semesters 1993-2000
Entering Class Quality using Secondary School Rank – by Decile
Fall Semesters 1996-2000
Mean Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test (ACT) Scores,
1993-2000
Median Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
and American College Test (ACT) Scores, 1998-2000
