Competition for Top Students Board of Visitors September 19, 2008 Stephen Farmer Office of Undergraduate Admissions 919.966.3992 sfarmer@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