Although colleges and universities nationwide have recently begun increasing the numbers of off-campus regional admissions officers on staff, Dartmouth has bucked the trend by maintaining only one admissions officer working remotely, and has no immediate plans to expand, according to the College admissions office.
A recent study by The Chronicle of Higher Education found that colleges across the nation were placing full-time representatives in distant zip codes in the hopes of attracting a greater number and diversity of applicants.
Dartmouth is one of several colleges not following this pattern. The College only has one full-time admissions officer who works remotely, according to members of the admissions office.
"We're piloting and testing this remote position," associate director of admissions Caroline Kerr, who works away from Hanover, said. "It's interesting for the office to know if we can expand this option for later down the road."
Kerr lives in Cambridge, Mass., and has worked with admissions for five years. Previously based in Hanover, Kerr kept the same position because she was interested in continuing to work for the admissions office. Her location is not a strategic plan on the College's part to extend outreach, Kerr said.
Kerr continues to travel to her assigned regions during the fall and spring for recruitment, while working from her office in Cambridge and focusing on her admissions responsibilities that are not location specific, Kerr said. She commutes to Dartmouth every two weeks to maintain contact with the admissions office.
While her work in Cambridge has gone well thus far, Kerr said it is still too early to see if the College will expand on remote admissions positions.
Middlebury College has also refrained from expanding its remote staff, although the college currently has two admissions counselors living off-campus one in Austin and the other in Washington, D.C., according to Admissions Director Greg Buckles.
"We had an opportunity unfold in a strategically important area and decided to take advantage of it," Buckles said.
The counselors were employed at Middlebury before assuming their regional positions, Buckles said. One counselor moved to Washington for her sabbatical, and the other relocated to Texas for family-related reasons. In both cases, Buckles said, Middlebury wanted to retain an experienced and valued member of admissions as well as set up something advantageous for the office.
"It wasn't that we decided we wanted a regional admissions counselor on the West Coast, for example, and hired someone there," Buckles said. "We made the decision while keeping in mind our own staff."
The counselors visit local schools as well travel to neighboring states, according to Buckles. They return to the Middlebury campus several times a year for special programs and committee meetings.
Buckles said that Middlebury had seen a strong number of applicants from those areas.
"It's a nice advantage for us, particularly in Texas," Buckles said. "We are much more accessible for students and visible to a lot more programs, and we are able to offer greater opportunities for students to talk to college counselors directly."
A member of the admissions office at Grinnell College said it only had one regional representative who was based in Chicago and handles the surrounding regions in Illinois. All other admissions officers are based at the college. Several admissions officers emphasized their reliance on technology to maintain communication with their colleges while visiting other regions of the country.
"Work doesn't stop when we're on the road," Dartmouth assistant director of admissions John Beck said. "We prepare ourselves for being away from campus. Starbucks with free WiFi has actually revolutionized travel, so we can check in with the office through Blitz[Mail] every day."
Dartmouth's online process for reading applications has also made working away from the office easier, according to Beck and Kerr.
"Our paperless system means that we can read applications from anywhere with an Internet connection," Kerr said.
The recent financial downturn has affected recruitment efforts. Changes at Dartmouth were most noticeable in the decrease in recruiters' international travel, according to Beck and Kerr. The admissions office also increased its online presence last year by completely overhauling the admissions website as well as allowing prospective students to chat weekly with current Dartmouth students live online, Kerr said.
At Middlebury, the poor economic situation has placed limits on the possibility of immediate regional expansion, according to Buckles. Instead, Middlebury is looking to attract more volunteers to conduct alumni interviews as well as expand non-traditional methods of recruitment, such as pairing with high schools to give online Skype visits, Buckles said.
