1. Promoting Access and Diversity in a Competitive Environment Ted Spencer Associate Vice Provost and Director of Admission Chris Lucier Director of Recruitment and Operations

2. Agenda Demonstrate how Descriptor PLUS ™ can help identify underrepresented populations during the evaluation process Potential impacts of using DP Next steps –Descriptor PLUS™ for recruitment and outreach Employing other tools to simplify the application process to enhance access –Electronic submission of transcripts

3. Geodemography Drives consumer marketing “people with similar cultural backgrounds, means, and perspectives naturally gravitate toward one another or form relatively homogeneous communities.” Does not consider college-bound behavior Source: Descriptor PLUS ™ : An Educationally Relevant Geodemographic Tagging Service. The College Board

4. Descriptor PLUS ™ Educational Neighborhoods (EN) –Educationally relevant geodemographic clusters (30) –Begins with socioeconomic data and includes academic and curricular interest data –Unique and relevant characteristics of prototypic college- bound students and their behavior related to college-choice –30 clusters =>180,000+ neighborhoods High School Clusters –College choice is driven by characteristics of the student within their neighborhood, but also within the context of their high school –Academic/curricular indicators, historical patterns of college choice, student interests, as well as socioeconomic and mobility factors –30 clusters =>27,000+ schools 150 attributes, or individual pieces of information, now exist for both Educational Neighborhoods and High Schools Source: Descriptor PLUS ™ : An Educationally Relevant Geodemographic Tagging Service. The College Board

5. Identify “represented” and “underrepresented” clusters Tag ’04 and ’05 enrolled classes Enrolled because that defines your academic community Certain trends clear Define the difference between represented and underrepresented

6. Educational Neighborhoods Educational Neighborhood 2005Educational Neighborhood 2004 128% (1,477)127.5% (1404) 725.1%720.0% 49.9%410.2% 236.1%168.7% 165.6% (74.5%)238.0% (74.5%) 133.7% (194)223.4% (172) 253.5%133.2% 223.3%282.8% 202.7%252.6% 21.9%32.0% 31.8%2

7. High Schools High School2005High School2004 1248% (2514)1246.9% (2607) 2311.8%2310.8% 178.5%179.4% 258.3%258.7% 106.1%106.8% 275.9% (88.6%)275.9% (88.5%) 265.2% (270)265.5% (305) 112.7%112.4% 241.0%240.9% 80.6%8 150.4%150.6%

8. Do we treat all underrepresented clusters the same? Some underrepresented clusters reflect high SES – access and opportunity not a problem Define high priority underrepresented clusters –Access is important –Socioeconomic factors Not the sole factor – should tie with other information about the student or school

9. High Priority Educational Neighborhood Clusters EN IS CLUSTER UR AT UM? PARENT'S AVG INCOME AVG PARENTAL EDUC. LEVEL % OF ADULTS IN PROF. JOBS INTEREST IN FIN. AIDCOMMENTS 1N72424NEIGHBORHOOD IS YOUNG AND PREDOMINANTLY PROFESSIONAL 2Y84827PARENTS ARE WELL-EDUCATED AND MODERATELY AFFLUENT 3Y611923 INCOMES IS ABOVE AVERAGE AND INTEREST IN FIN. AID IS BELOW AVERAGE 4N11330 HIGHEST INCOME OF ANY CLUSTER. YOUNG, MOBILE, AND HIGHLY EDUCATED PROFESSIONALS 5Y2420235 ALMOST HALF OF THE HS GRADS WILL GO DIRECTLY INTO THE WORK FORCE OR MILITARY 6Y22172314 ED LEVEL FOR PARENTS IN AVG. BUT INCOME LEVEL IS BELOW AVG. 7N209199 PARENTS ARE TYPICALLY MIDDLE CLASS AND ARE INTERESTED IN FIN. AID 8Y2826274 INCOME AND ED LEVELS FOR PARENTS ARE VERY LOW AND FIN. AID WILL BE REQUIRED TO SUPPORT COLLEGE ENROLLMENT 9Y16121418 PARENTAL HAVE AVG. INCOME, ED. EXPERIENCES, AND INTEREST IN FIN. AID 10Y26252613 PARENTS HAVE LOW INCOME AND ED. LEVELS. COST IS THE PRIMARY DRIVER BEHIND SELECTION OF A COLLEGE 11Y12131020 PARENTS ARE TYPICALLY MIDDLE INCOME SUBURBANITES WITH A MODERATE LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND INTEREST IN FIN. AID 12Y23242510 PARENTS HAVE LOWER INCOME AND ED. LEVELS AND STRONG INTEREST IN FIN. AID 13Y53129 PROFESSIONAL FAMILIES. INCOME AND ED LEVELS ARE HIGH AND FIN. AID IS NOT A SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN COLLEGE CHOICE 14Y15221811PARENTS HAVE MODERATE INCOME AND ED. LEVELS 15Y11151112 PARENTAL INCOME IS SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVG. AS IS INTEREST IN FIN. AID

10. High Priority High School Clusters HS IS CLUSTER UR AT UM? % GRADS ENTERING COLLEGE AVG PARENTAL EDUC. LEVEL PARENTS AVG. INCOME INTEREST IN FIN. AIDCOMMENTS 1Y29 3010 PARENTS HAVE LOWEST INCOME AND SECOND LOWEST ED LEVEL OF ANY HS CLUSTER. INTEREST IN FIN AID IS HIGH 2Y231821PARENTS HAVE ABOVE AVG ED LEVELS AND HIGHER INCOME 3Y28202614PARENTS TEND TO HAVE LOWER INCOME AND ED LEVELS 4Y9161120PARENTAL INCOME IS ABOVE AVG. 5Y12171613 PARENTS HAVE A MODERATE INCOME LEVEL AND ARE INTERESTED IN FIN AID 6Y2330293 PARENTS TEND TO HAVE A VERY LOW INCOME AND ED LEVEL. FIN AID INTEREST IS VERY HIGH 7Y27262210 ONLY ABOUT HALF OF ALL GRADUATES WILL PURSUE POST- SECONDARY EDUCATION. PARENTS HAVE A LOW INCOME LEVEL 8Y722248 PARENTS HAVE A LOWER THAN AVERAGE INOCME LEVEL. INTEREST IN FIN AID IS HIGH 9Y15212315 HIGH SCHOOLS TEND TO BE PUBLIC AND OFFER LIMITED SUPPORT FOR POST SECONDARY PREPARATION 10N17181318TARGET A VARIETY OF REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS, INCLUDING CCs 11Y2527282 PARENTS HAVE LOWER INCOME AND ED LEVELS AND WILL REQUIRE FIN. AID TO SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN'S COLLEGE ENROLLMENT 12N1611813 THEY WILL TARGET INSTITUTIONS KNOWN FOR GRAD AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL PREPARATION 13Y515271 PARENTS HAVE BELOW AVERAGE INCOME BUT HIGHER ED LEVELS 14Y2014925 PARENTS TYPICALLY HAVE AN ABOVE AVG. INCOME LEVEL AND LESS INTEREST IN FIN. AID 15Y1823194 PARENTS HAVE SLIGHTLY BELOW AVG. INCOME AND ED LEVELS, AND ABOVE AVG. INTEREST IN FIN. AID

11. EN and HS Cluster Tagging available to reviewer

12. Ties together with 1 st gen., low SES

13. Potential Impacts of utilizing Descriptor PLUS ™ Yield –Their behavior will have to be different than other students in that cluster – “going against the grain” –Increase number of admitted students with financial need Does not replace affirmative action –Treat high priority clusters the same Public Relations –Enroll more students in underrepresented areas –Change perceptions

14. Next Steps Tag prospects –Tagging strategy - timing –Null files –Inaccuracies – student generated errors Recruitment –Targeted communications at underserved populations –Focused programming –Financial aid information

15. Link to electronic transcript GPA recalculated Electronic Transcripts - Make it easier to apply and speed decision

16. Display by year

17. Display by course