1. Competition for Top Students
Board of Visitors
September 19, 2008
Stephen Farmer
Office of Undergraduate Admissions

2. Competition for Top Students
Improvement in our entering class
Our current competitors
Our challenges
Our possible responses

3. Improvement in Entering Class
Market share of North Carolinians scoring on SAT

4. 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%

5. Improvement in Entering Class
Rank in improvement among top-30 national and top-5 public universities

6. Current Competitors
Top overlap schools for Fall 2008 admitted students

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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