This spring, the Office of Admissions accepted its most socioeconomically, ethnically and racially diverse freshman class in the history of the College. Of the 663 members already enrolled in the Class of 2013, 59 percent are receiving aid from the Vassar College Scholarship Fund—a 12 percent rise since the 47 percent receiving aid three years ago. About 33 percent of the Class of 2013 is made up of students of color. Despite these successes, however, the College has decided to use financial need as a criterion in selecting 40 students from the wait list to be admitted as members of the Class of 2013.
Considering need for wait-list decisions—a method used at several of our need-blind peer institutions, such as Amherst and Middlebury Colleges—will only be used for the Class of 2013 wait list and not necessarily for wait lists in future years.
According to Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, the College made the decision for various reasons—one of them being that Admissions had already met its goal in achieving socioeconomic diversity with students accepted prior to the waitlist. “Before we even knew anything about the applicants for the Class of 2013,” explained Kitzinger, “we put in our financial models that we wanted to spend $13 million [on Vassar Financial Aid for first-year studnents] and have about 60 percent of the class on Vassar aid. We have achieved that.”
The $13 million budgeted by the College for first-year aid is significantly higher than last year’s $10 million, noted Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus. “If you look at the last three years, the Vassar budget for aid has just zoomed up overtime—which is great, since one of our major goals has been to increase the socioeconomic diversity of the student body”
Kitzinger went on to explain that the primary reason for considering need as one of the factors for wait-list decisions is that overextending the budget on the Class of 2013 would put added strain on the financial aid budget for existing students and on the entire operating budget of the college. . “Our concern for providing funds for all our existing students meant that we really had to control the amount for the rest of the Class of 2013,” said Kitzinger, “and the only way we could do that—since we hit our budgeted limit with the Class with regular-decision applications—is to take need as one of the factors that we use when we take students off the wait list.”
Kitzinger continued, explaining that the College made the decision knowing that “there would be students who are already here who come back the Financial Aid Office because of the recession and say, ‘I need more money.’ And we are completely committed to the students who are here and providing for them what we need.”
Borus noted that above incoming first-year students, Vassar holds its exiting students at the highest priority. “We have had to use financial need as one criteria among many,” explained Borus, “because we’ve already overspent on our budget and, more significantly, because we have returning students who have increased need and students who didn’t have need before who now do. When students come to Vassar, we give them a four-year commitment—if during your four years your financial situation changes somewhere along the way, we’re going to meet your need.”
From the current wait list, about 40 students will be offered a place in the Class of 2013. Even though Admissions will use need as a decision-making factor for these students, this will only be one criterion of many. “The factors we use in Admissions will apply as usual,” said Kitzinger. “We consider things like the gender-balance of the class, we consider what skills the wait-listed students have, we consider where students come from for geographical diversity. Those factors are always there. We really want to fill out the full picture of the class.”
Similarly, Borus explained that even with need as one decisive factor, accepted students from the wait list will not all be need-free. “Some of the students from the wait list who we’ve already offered places to do have financial needs,” said Borus.
Overall, Borus and Kitzinger reported that the College was more than satisfied with what came as a result of this year’s admission’s policies—which were, up until the wait list rounds, entirely need-blind. “I’m very happy with the way things went for admissions this year—this class is more diverse socioeconomically, ethnically, than any class in Vassar’s history. The numbers of students receiving financial aid are up, the socioeconomic spectrum of students in the class is broader and this is also the most ethnically diverse class we’ve ever had.”
“In terms of our calculations about what we thought need-blind would bring us, in terms of socioeconomic diversity,” added Kitzinger, “we feel very happy with where we are with the Class of 2013.”
Kitzinger also noted that the College’s decision to use need as a decisive factor for the wait-list was contingent upon the particular circumstances of this year. “Just because we did this this year, does not mean we will do it the following year or the next,” said Kitzinger. “We will have to wait and see what happens next year, but this is by no means a decision in perpetuity—it’s a decision based on the particular circumstances of this admissions round.”
13 comments
What a straightforward way of putting it! Poor student quota: met. On to those who can pay...
I think this piece could use some student voice. Where's the kickback at?