Admissions officers will attend more admitted student receptions in metropolitan areas this spring as well as work to standardize the resources and materials given to smaller Dartmouth clubs for their events, dean of admissions and financial aid Maria Laskaris said.
The offices will examine the successful practices of worldwide alumni clubs and share this information with smaller clubs without as much experience hosting events for accepted students.
Vice president for alumni relations Martha Beattie said she and Laskaris have been talking for several months about how to better recruit top students at these receptions.
“We basically have these events that combine things that each department does,” Beattie said. “We thought we should be doing this in a more integrated way than in the past, and we looked at what we could do to ramp up these yield parties.”
The admissions office has traditionally given alumni clubs names of admitted students in their respective areas. The clubs would then invite them to a reception held at the house of an alumnus or alumna.
Some areas also hold send-off receptions or barbecues after students have committed to attending Dartmouth.
The admissions officers’ visits will coincide with spring recruitment travel for the Class of 2019.
The admissions office is also helping alumni clubs contact current students who live near newly admitted students, Laskaris said. Alumni volunteers at the Dartmouth Club of Washington, D.C., she said, have seen success with having students on the government foreign study program attend receptions.
Laskaris said the admissions office is working with the office of alumni affairs to compile materials for local clubs to use in their recruitment efforts, including a best practices document that covers topics like contacting students, incorporating parents into receptions and ideas for venues.
Admitted student receptions will not be standardized nationwide, Laskaris said.
“This isn’t meant to be a rigid template that everyone’s meant to follow,” she said. “It’s about harnessing the best practices of alumni leaders across the country.”
Benjamin Packer ’17 said he attended an admitted student reception in Dallas last year and did not feel that it adequately represented the College.
Packer said that he got a negative impression from an alumnus who told him to pick Dartmouth over his other options because they were not Ivy League institutions.
He said he appreciated the presence of two members of the Class of 2016 at the reception.
Daniel Widawsky ’18, who was an early decision applicant, said that he plans to attend his local reception at a New York City law firm and considers the event an opportunity to meet his future classmates.
Widawsky sees the incorporation of more students and admissions officers at these events as a positive change.
Michelle Chen of Overland Park, Kan., a regular decision admit, said she does not feel that a reception will influence her college decision.
“I think for me, in making my decision, it will rely more on visiting the campus since I’ve never visited Dartmouth,” Chen said.
Representatives of the Dartmouth Clubs of Washington, D.C. and New York City did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction appended: April 2, 2014
The initial version of the story said that a representative of the Dartmouth Club of Boston did not respond to a request for comment by press time. This was inaccurate, and the story has been revised to correct the error.
