University launches program to up diversity

The Admission Office and Alumni Schools Council have launched a program aimed at increasing the socioeconomic diversity of the University's undergraduate applicant pool through pilot programs involving Boston and Washington, D.C.-area public high schools.

The programs are based on creating relationships with schools that have traditionally not yielded applicants to the University and have a large number of low-income and minority students.

"What we were aware of was that there were Princeton-caliber students out there, and the University wasn't seeking them out, and they weren't seeking out Princeton," chair of the Boston pilot program and vice president of the Princeton Association of New England Andrew Hoffman '89 said in an interview.

Both the Admission Office and Alumni Schools Council (ASC) recognized that outreach efforts to these schools present "a qualitatively different challenge" because many students have never seriously considered the University and are reluctant to apply for financial reasons, co-chair of the Washington, D.C. program and acting chairman of the FDIC Martin Gruenberg '75 said.

To remedy this situation, alumni in and around Boston and Washington, D.C. have devised a four-part program in conjunction with the Admission Office to spread the message to local high school students and their guidance counselors that the University is a viable option, especially because of the University's strong financial aid program.

"We can't expect students to come to us if we're not willing to go to them," Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said in a recent Princeton Weekly Bulletin article. "It's more about the relationships we're creating with the schools, and having more visibility in specific areas."

Rapelye was unavailable for further comment.

First, a University admission officer and a handful of local alumni visit a high school to meet with guidance counselors and students to establish and sustain interest, Gruenberg said.

Next, the University group holds a breakfast discussion with guidance counselors to discuss the complex process of college admissions and, specifically, University admissions.

Organizing these meetings is often difficult, but they are a crucial link in the chain because "we don't want guidance counselors to self-select their students," D.C. program co-chair Patrice Pitts '79 said.

"Particularly in the large public schools, the whole guidance process doesn't serve the students so well because counselors decide [incorrectly] that certain colleges are out of reach for their students," Pitts said.

The ASC and the Admission Office also organize an information session for high school juniors of color and their families called "Why Princeton?" that provides insight on being a minority student at the University.

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The final component of the project is a program for high school freshmen and sophomores to spark their interest in the University early on.

"We had a tremendous response, and they were terrific programs," Gruenberg said. "We are getting short-term results, but the real point is to establish a longterm relationship [in which] Princeton becomes part of the college admission discussion at the school."

The Washington, D.C. program currently targets 10 high schools in that area, and the Boston program has established links with eight.

The ASC members working on these programs are volunteers, and "the alumni response has been unbelievable," Hoffman said.

Members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni and of the Alumni Council's National Schools Committee provided much of the support, Gruenberg said.

Large numbers of alumni signed up for the pilot programs in both cities, and a group of alumni in Chicago wanted to start one in that city, Gruenberg said. He added, though, that the third initiative has been put on hold because the Admission Office wants to fully evaluate the success of the D.C. and Boston programs before expanding the idea.