Incoming freshmen exceed Saint Mary's diversity goals
By MYRA McGRIFF
Saint Mary's Editor
Their acceptances letters are in, their bags are packed, and their eyes are set on one mission: joining the women of Saint Mary's. Some 441 first-year students moved in on Aug. 23 and made Saint Mary's their home for the next four years.
The incoming students were very involved in their high schools, including activies such as yearbook, student government or habitat for humanity. The average student had a grade point average of 3.6 and the middle 50 percent of the class scored between a 1020 and a 1220 on the SAT.
The admissions office set out to unite women from diverse backgrounds and well-rounded lives and the incoming first year students met these goals with incoming first year students, 42 transfer students and 19 Saint Mary's-Holy Cross linkage students. The office hoped for 10 percent of the class to be multicultural students and some 60 multicultural students are expected. Coming from countries of Bolivia, Bosnia, Great Britain, Nigeria, Mexico and the Philippines, the Saint Mary's community will see 14 percent of students who are multicultural.
"Our goal was to increase the number of incoming first year [students] from last year's 438 and we did. We wanted to increase the number of expected multicultural students and we did. We always want to maintain the quality of Saint Mary's, and this class is a strong one," Mary Pat Nolan, director of admissions, said.
Through the combined efforts of the Multicultural Office and the Leaders of New Indiana (LONI), the admissions office met and exceeded their goals. One new recruitment method employed the help of the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Through the NACAC's online college fair, Saint Mary's created a virtual booth — a page of information where prospective students could log in to live chats with admission staff and Volunteers in Support of Admission (VISA) students. Saint Mary's, participating in nine themed online college fairs over the 2000-2001 academic year, became a viable option for any student with Internet access.
"It gives students expanding opportunity and we will see greater participation next year," Nolan said.
Along with new recruiting methods, admissions also leaned on its usual methods. Traveling to some 35 states and countries, admissions staff attended high schools and national college fair nights, trying to convince students to consider St. Mary's. The office also recruited many multicultural students from college fairs held by organizations with diverse backgrounds.
"We worked with fairs like the National Hispanic Institute, the National Scholar Service, United States Hispanic Leadership Conference, National Hispanic college fairs," Mona Bowe, associate director of admission, said
Working with these organizations over the years, the admission office continually adds on to the number of fair they attend. To recruit the incoming first year students, the office traveled as far east as Cleveland and as far west as California attending multicultural fairs. However, no matter how many students are recruited from fairs and high school visits, Nolan stressed the impact students play. As current students participate in campus tours and hosting prospective students, they make Saint Mary's visible.
"They are sharing the experience of Saint Mary's by outreach," Nolan said.
All News Stories for Sunday, August 26, 2001
