Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg talked candidly about the College's admissions process, calling himself Dartmouth's "vice president of sales," in an informal discussion last night in Sanborn Hall
Furstenberg did not need a moment to think about the reasons he loves his job.
"I get a chance to meet an incredibly rich and interesting group of people. Everybody has a story," he said.
He also spoke about the problem-solving aspect of the job and how difficult and challenging it is to make candid admissions decisions.
"In a way," he said, "I'm kind of the vice-president of sales at Dartmouth."
Furstenberg's discussion was sponsored by Voices, a group formed last spring that hosts three speakers a term "to encourage open-mindedness by providing an opportunity to discover and explore the diversity of personal values that exist among the College's students and faculty," according to a Voices flyer.
Furstenberg spoke candidly about Dartmouth's admissions process.
He said each application is read at least three times. The first time, someone from the Admissions Office reads and comments on the applicant.
Then the application is read again. The second reader makes his or her own comments, having never seen what the first reader wrote. Both the comment sheets and the application itself are then read by Furstenberg, who either makes a decision or passes the application on to a committee.
Furstenberg said about 1,500 to 2,000 applications typically go before the committee.
Furstenberg said the hardest part about admissions is trying to judge someone's potential.
"The old cliche about educating future leaders" holds true, he said, and the Admissions Office's goal is to admit the best and brightest applicants to ensure the future of the College.
Furstenberg said he primarily enjoys the opportunity to work with younger staff members in the admissions office.
He said young people without any formal experience can do a great deal of work in the admissions process as long as the process is conducted in an open, group atmosphere.
However much Furstenberg loves his job, he admitted it is filled with pressure and frustration.
"Everybody thinks they are an expert about who should be admitted," he said. He said that "everybody" includes high school guidance counselors, coaches and parents of applicants.
A more difficult issue is that "the media has become almost fixated on the college admissions process," Furstenberg said.
April, when most colleges send out their acceptance letters, is the time of year when colleges are the most visual. Furstenberg said the central issue is to "protect the admissions process so that it's fair and has integrity."
This year more than 10,000 people applied for 2,000 spots at Dartmouth.
Of the 2,000 people who are accepted, about 1,000 chose to attend Dartmouth. The number of applicants is up from four years ago when then the college received about 6,000 applications.
Furstenberg attributed this jump to the fact that students "approach it like a lottery- you buy more tickets, your chances go up. This is unfortunate because it's all about education."
After his speech, Furstenberg opened up the discussion to questions from the audience. One student asked Furstenberg how the applicant pool has changed over the years.
Furstenberg said there are many more women in the pool and the percentage of male and female applicants is very close to even.
He said the applicants are more nationally and internationally diverse.
Furstenberg also said the number of students needing financial aid has gone up considerably because of the College's need-blind admissions process for domestic students.
Many members of the audience asked Furstenberg about the gender breakdown of the Class of 1999. For the first time in Dartmouth's history, the freshman class has more women than men.
Furstenberg said the College actually admitted 60 to 70 more men than women this year but the acceptance yield of women was higher.
Ironically, the College actually admitted more women than men for the Class of 1998, but more men chose to attend.
Over the last five years, the number of female applicants has gone up close to 40 percent while the number of male applicants has only gone up 13 percent, according to Furstenberg.
