Houston Chronicle: Colleges mine backgrounds of incoming class

[Mary.loves.you]

<p>Article from the Houston Chronicle, 17 March 2007.

Lark Hallman had never heard of Houston Baptist University until a recruiter’s e-mail arrived in her inbox. “I was surprised,” said Hallman, who attends Oak Ridge High School near Conroe. “I really didn’t know anything about it.”</p>

<p>Yet the university knew enough about Hallman to send a no-fee application with promises of a quick admissions decision and priority in financial aid considerations. School officials pursued Hallman because her academic and demographic background matched that of the typical HBU student.</p>

<p>Such targeted recruitment helped boost HBU’s freshman applications to 3,467, as of Wednesday ? an increase of more than 600 percent from the same date a year ago.</p>

<p>The university is one of a growing number of schools using elaborate mathematical models to assemble the incoming class they desire. Some colleges want more science majors or more students with better academic credentials and diverse backgrounds while others are trying to increase tuition revenue… (cont’d)

Centered on Texas schools, but nevertheless interesting.
<a href=“http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4640395.html[/url]”>http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4640395.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[epiphany]

<p>I actually really like this idea, as long as there’s not deception or exploitation going on. As it is now – with the small exception of athletic recruitment & a more recent phenomenon of academic likely letters – the college pursuit is 95% on the part of the student. (Nat’l Merit is merely massive mailing based on scores, not suitability.) It could reduce the # of random applications to have more mutuality in the picture. And anything that reduces the number of total apps in the system is a good thing, in my book.</p>