Spring Break
Faculty contact aims to recruit top 500 applicants
by Alana Abramson
Staff writer
News | 2/24/09
Posted online at 7:46 AM EST on 2/24/09
A new initiative created by the Office of Admissions and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences will put faculty members in contact with up to five of the top 500 applicants from the Class of 2013 each in an effort to recruit them to attend the school, according to an e-mail Dean of Arts and Sciences Adam Jaffe wrote to faculty explaining this initiative.
The Office of Admissions began sending e-mails to these students last Friday, providing them with a link that enables them to tell admissions officers if they would like personal contact with a Brandeis faculty member, Jaffe, who is coordinating the faculty effort for the initiative, said in an interview with the Justice.
"By the time the actual acceptance letters go out, students are flooded with information from multiple schools, so we thought it was sensible to contact them before the acceptance letters actually went out in an effort to interest them early on," Jaffe said.
Jaffe said the University's budget situation did not play a direct role in the forming of the initiative.
"This initiative does not have anything to do with Brandeis' budget difficulties; it is a further step in recruiting admitted students," Jaffe said. "However, given the circumstances, it will be a helpful opportunity to assuage any concerns applicants may have about these issues," he explained.
Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the office of admissions identified the top 500 applicants as those students who "achieved the highest ratings in the admissions application review program," which he said was based on "quality of courses taken and performance, personal character and potential for contribution to the Brandeis community."
"Brandeis has such a self-selecting applicant pool (so many demonstrate to be some of the top high school seniors in [the] nation and abroad) that we could have easily sent 2000 preliminary admission letters," Villanueva wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "The selection process was most thoughtful and deliberate. Ultimately, applicants that rose above the rest were chosen," he wrote.
The Office of Admissions began sending e-mails to these students last Friday, providing them with a link that enables them to tell admissions officers if they would like personal contact with a Brandeis faculty member, Jaffe, who is coordinating the faculty effort for the initiative, said in an interview with the Justice.
"By the time the actual acceptance letters go out, students are flooded with information from multiple schools, so we thought it was sensible to contact them before the acceptance letters actually went out in an effort to interest them early on," Jaffe said.
Jaffe said the University's budget situation did not play a direct role in the forming of the initiative.
"This initiative does not have anything to do with Brandeis' budget difficulties; it is a further step in recruiting admitted students," Jaffe said. "However, given the circumstances, it will be a helpful opportunity to assuage any concerns applicants may have about these issues," he explained.
Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that the office of admissions identified the top 500 applicants as those students who "achieved the highest ratings in the admissions application review program," which he said was based on "quality of courses taken and performance, personal character and potential for contribution to the Brandeis community."
"Brandeis has such a self-selecting applicant pool (so many demonstrate to be some of the top high school seniors in [the] nation and abroad) that we could have easily sent 2000 preliminary admission letters," Villanueva wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "The selection process was most thoughtful and deliberate. Ultimately, applicants that rose above the rest were chosen," he wrote.
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