Aiming Higher: Covenant College Admissions office takes on tough economy

In a year of recession, as many colleges are scaling back and forced to compromise admissions standards, Covenant is bucking the national trend and continuing to talk about progress. Though recruitment has felt a strain, this year Covenant was “still able to fill the incoming class with students who fit,” according to Sarah Ocando, the Associate Director of Admissions.

This has allowed the college to remain optimistic about new developments in admission policies and recruitment strategies.

“We are always evaluating how we can better reflect the school’s mission,” said Director of Academic Support Janet Hulsey.

Discussion for improvement has included the possibility of raising academic standards for applicants, changing recruitment strategies, or altering the admissions process itself.

Changes like this are initiated by Covenant’s Admissions Committee. The committee, made up of four faculty, three staff, and one student representative, attempts to uphold standards of academic rigor while remaining open to all individuals who are willing to learn and improve.

“Changing academic minimums is an issue that we’ve discussed as a future possibility,” said sophomore Ruth Gibson, the student representative on the committee. “Essentially, we’ve talked about raising the GPA minimum from 3.0 to 3.5.”

The average GPA of this year’s freshman class is a 3.69, with 21 of 269 students falling below the minimum. At this point, raising the GPA minimum to 3.5 would affect approximately 46 more students – a total of 67, or 25% of the whole class.

Ocando is currently working with Dr. Kevin Eames and Karen Nelson, the respective Director and Associate Director of Institutional Research, to examine and evaluate data like this. Essentially, they are asking how higher minimums might change the make-up of the freshman class and whether that is something we are willing to do as an institution.

According to Hulsey, a voting member of the Admissions Committee, “From an academic perspective, we want top-notch students. But we don’t want to become an exclusive institution to the point that we leave out hard-working students who can and will succeed. The question is: where is the line?”

Gibson said she is hopeful that students will weigh in on the question as well. “Students should know they can talk to me about this. I’m the student representative so that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

The Committee has also discussed transitioning from rolling admissions – a process which accepts all eligible students as they complete their applications – to what is called a “selective” admissions process. This process is used in schools like Wheaton College or Vanderbilt University. Instead of going out and looking for applicants, these schools “build” a class: Admissions committees decide what they want the new class to look like demographically and selectively process all the applications at one time.

While these changes may never fully materialize, the Admissions office remains open to discussing room for improvement.

In recruitment, which is separate from the acceptance process, other improvements are being put into action. Admissions Representative Andrew Russell is currently developing a recruitment strategy for students who are culturally or ethnically diverse. Russell, who graduated from Covenant in 2006, is doing demographic research in large recruitment hubs and forming a proposal to better equip the school to reach minorities. Students concerned about the lack of ethnic diversity on campus expressed optimism over Russell’s work.

“We’re so white,” said senior Timothy VanVliet. “I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but here we are at a mostly white college, living on top of a mountain in a largely white, upper-class community, going to largely white churches.”
Senior Laura Hutton said that though she understands a large factor is that we are a PCA school and our demographics reflect those of the PCA, “We could do a better job of being a fuller picture of the body of Christ.”
Russell’s project will hopefully enable recruitment to communicate that mission more clearly.

In all the talk of improvement, Matthew Bryant, Director of Admissions, pointed out that Covenant will keep its commitment to a personal and Christ-centered focus: “The most important thing we tell our recruiters is that you need to first develop a relationship with these students before you can even begin to recruit them.”
“Covenant is so unique,” said Ocando, “and I think when you start articulating that to people, whoever they are, the ‘right’ ones want to come.”

[Originally published here.]