The admissions office visits 500 to 600 schools and hosts 65 to 80 information sessions both joint sessions and Dartmouth-specific sessions over the course of a typical year, according to Director of Admissions Recruitment Daniel Parish '89. International students and domestic students interviewed by The Dartmouth had mixed feelings about the effectiveness of the College's recruitment efforts.
The College maintains a "fairly aggressive international outreach program that includes using all aspects of Dartmouth's resources," according to Senior Associate Director of Admissions Becky Munsterer, who manages the College's international outreach program.
"Recruitment travel is about making sure that we bring Dartmouth in a personal way to the communities from where students are applying," Parish said.
Although it varies from year to year, typically five out of the 14 admissions officers, including Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Maria Laskaris, travel internationally in any given year, Munsterer said.
Dartmouth admissions officers visited 517 schools in the fall, including approximately 20 schools outside of the U.S., according to Parish.
"Our primary goal is developing relationships with counselors and schools," Munsterer said.
Admissions officers visit high schools to develop long-term relationships with their guidance counselors rather than simply to recruit seniors from one particular class, she said.
"If we visit a particular school, we do tend to see that the visit and personal interaction pays off," she said.
Admissions officers also meet with community-based organizations, scholarship organizations and non-profit groups that work with high-achieving students with limited access to higher education, he said.
"Depending on the location or community, the purpose of our travel will vary," Parish said.
Admissions officers travel to areas where Dartmouth is popular as well as to areas that have "a lot of potential" but do not have as many prospective Dartmouth students. Parish said. The admissions officers strive to provide students and counselors with better access to information about Dartmouth, he said.
Parish also said the time admissions officers spend traveling is "only one piece of a larger overall recruitment strategy."
Admissions officers travel anywhere from two and a half to five weeks every fall for school visits, meetings with high school counselors and information sessions, he said.
"Typically, if I visit a school in the fall, chances are good that we'll see an increase in applications from that school in the next year or two," Associate Director of Admissions Cameron Pinckney said.
Similarly, when the College conducts large regional information sessions, applications from those regions tend to increase, he said.
The College often travels with other peer institutions to educate international students about the American higher education system because it is "cost-effective," Munsterer said.
"We're all allies trying to find the best international students and educate them about liberal arts," she said.
Recruitment strategies vary from one institution to another, according to Parish.
"Highly selective schools like Dartmouth, as a rule, probably travel a little less than other colleges and universities because there is less pressure for them to build interest than schools that are more tuition and enrollment driven," Parish said.
Dartmouth may also focus more on bringing students to its campus than its peer institutions, he said. Since Dartmouth is not in a large metroplitan area, it is often difficult for students to explore the campus before they consider applying.
Other outreach strategies include communication with prospective students, interaction through social media and efforts to bring students to campus, according to Parish.
Technology plays a vital role in outreach, as do students and alumni, Munsterer said.
"The manpower of a small admissions office staff can't be compared to the network of professors, students and alumni abroad," Munsterer said.
Eunbit Hwang '12, who attended Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, said the admissions officers' visit to her school "highly influenced" her decision to come to Dartmouth.
Dartmouth is not well known in South Korea, and Hwang said she was "surprised" that admissions officers from an Ivy League institution made the effort to visit her school, which is in a rural area in "such a small country" compared to the U.S.
"It felt really intimate," she said.
However, Bum Sun Jun '14 said that the Dartmouth admission officer's presentation at his school did not stand out among the presentations by other visiting universities.
"At the end of the day, it's all the same thing," he said.
He added, however, that Dartmouth made more of an impression on him than universities that did not visit his school at all.
Veronica Leonard '14, who attended the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Md., said that out of the more than 20 university information sessions she attended, Dartmouth's visit to her school stood out to her. The admissions officer who spoke to her was "the most honest" and spoke about Dartmouth's holistic approach to reviewing applications, she said. It was "refreshing" to hear that the Admissions Office was looking at more than just SAT scores, she said.
