Competition for Top Students

Board of VisitorsSeptember 19, 2008

Stephen FarmerOffice of Undergraduate Admissions919.966.3992sfarmer@admissions.unc.edu

Competition for Top Students

Improvement in our entering class

Our current competitors

Our challenges

Our possible responses

Improvement in Entering Class

Market share of North Carolinians scoring 1400+ on SAT

Improvement in Entering Class

Change in common indicators of student quality

2002 2007

% in top 10 percent of HS class 71% 76%

SAT 75th percentile 1370 1400

SAT 25th percentile 1180 1210

% underrepresented 11% 12%

Yield 57.0% 55.6%

Applications 17,141 20,090

% admitted 34.8% 35.4%

Improvement in Entering Class

Rank in improvement among top-30 national and top-5 public universities

Current Competitors

Top overlap schools for Fall 2008 admitted students

Challenge: Aid

Other top schools are enhancing need-based aid

We overlap heavily with these schools

Students admitted to UNC and any of 35 aid-enhanced schools

Challenge: Aid

One-year changes in yield for students cross-admitted to Carolina and at least one of 35 aid-enhanced schools

Challenge: Growth

Enrollment growth

Art & Science study: growth by itself won’t necessarily hurt us

Any perceived decline in the quality of the student body will definitely hurt us

Any perceived decline in the quality of the student experience will definitely not help us

Responding to Challenges

What would help?

Raise money for aid, and direct that money strategically

Tell our story, and especially the stories of our best students

Develop opportunities that aren’t available elsewhere, and offer those opportunities to our best students at the time of admission

Make recruitment a University-wide priority