Hello AARs!

It has been a busy fall in the Admission Office already and our Admission staff has been on the road recruiting students in over 35 cities. Check out the link on our website that explains where we’ve been and where we’re going: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/admission/Travel/.

I inherited the AAR Program from Melanie Drake who left our office this summer to be a College Counselor at St. Gregory School in Tucson. This will be my 4th fall in the Admission Office after teaching English in the Colorado Springs public school system for eight years. I’ve enjoyed working with all my volunteers in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and Denver these past couple of years and look forward to continuing to do so, as well as meeting other alumni across the nation. As a graduate of CC (English major/Education minor – class of `93), I have a passion for Colorado College and love hearing what other alumni are doing. It’s an exhilarating time for Colorado College as we move forward on our new mission of being the finest liberal arts institution in the nation.

If you’ve ever wondered how the AAR program is structured, it is essentially one of six committees of the Alumni Association Board that specifically promotes alumni involvement in recruiting new students to the college. The AAR committee (part of the Alumni Association Board) is chaired by Addison Diehl `91. Addison’s committee is currently made up of seven alumni that provide assistance and advice to the Admission Office as well as acting in a leadership capacity for the program. You will receive occasional newsletters from the AAR committee throughout the year. If you want to read more about the Alumni Association Board and the AAR program, check out the following link: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/alumni/aab/members.asp (click on Alumni Admission Representatives.)

The AAR Program has been in a planning phase in the past few years, and we may not have utilized your help as much as we could have. One of my goals is to change that. The AAR Program is a priority for Colorado College and we want to get alumni involved in a variety of ways: attending college fairs, calling prospective students to encourage them to apply, being listed on our web page as an email contact, attending an information meeting in your area, or hosting/assisting with an admitted student party in January and/or April. I want our AAR Coordinators to take on more of a leadership role and plan more recruiting activities that you as a volunteer can get involved with.

We are also launching a couple of pilot programs: Alumni Interviews in Boston and Chicago, as well as a Minority Alumni Recruiting Program to have minority alumni help us increase our minority applications. Increasing student applications is one of the overall goals of the AAR program, as is increasing our selectivity. Addison Diehl `91, our AAB Committee Chair writes: “As CC aggressively seeks to increase the number of students that apply, thereby raising the overall quality of the applicant pool, your part in the process will become infinitely more valuable.”

Last year, the Admission Office had a record year. We experienced the largest applicant pool in Colorado College history (4,171 applications - the first time over 4,000, an 18% increase over last year), the lowest admit rate in more that 10 years (46% - the first time in more than ten years we were below a 50% admit rate with no wait list activity for the first time in 20+ years), and the highest yield in more than 10 years (33% of the students we admitted committed to attending CC this fall.) As a result, the Class of 2008 is very talented and diverse:

• 620 deposits vs. 591 last year
• 118 students of color (19.0%) vs. 107 (18.1%) last year
• 289 male / 331 female (47% / 53%)
• 14% in top 1% of high school class vs. 11% last year
• 51% in top 10% of high school class vs. 46% last year
• 1280 SAT / 28 ACT median vs. 1270 SAT / 27 ACT last year

Since we can’t target all cities all the time, President Celeste and our Dean, Mark Hatch, have come up with a list of key areas to target for our recruiting efforts. Please know that over time, we’re hoping to have a strong AAR program where we can utilize alumni in rural and non-key areas in our recruiting efforts as well. A list of key cities and their Coordinators are included in this mailing as well as materials that prospective students receive from us. If you know a student that would be a good applicant for Colorado College, please feel free to give them the application and encourage them to apply. Also, if you know an alumnus/ae who would be willing to step up and be an AAR Coordinator in one of the key areas that doesn’t have a Coordinator, let me know.

For now, I just wanted to introduce myself, let you know a little bit about the AAR Program, tell you about our record year, and encourage you to get more involved.

Go Tigers!

Jennifer Phelps `93

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