Using institutional strategy and data driven decision making, the University of Calgary adopted an Early Admission pathway based on final grade 11 grades. After two admission cycles with this pathway, find out what was learned and how this pathway has shaped undergraduate admission from high school at one of Canada's top research intensive universities.
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Scott Robinson
Associate Registrar, Admissions and Recruitment
University of Calgary
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Monday, Nov 2, 2015 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Tell us a little about your session.
I’ll be sharing an Early Admissions pathway we implemented a few years ago. To develop the pathway, we first observed successful similar programs in American and Canadian institutions. From there, we took a data-driven approach to create an early admission program for our university based on final Grade 11 grades. Students do not have to opt in for this program; students just apply by a predetermined date and we will consider them for the early admissions program.
What were you hoping to achieve through the early admissions pathway? Was this program successful?
Our institution was challenged with enroling a strong number of high-achieving students in a competitive timeframe. While we had a normal practice of offering conditional admission from a very early date in the cycle, the end results in summer were varied and resulted in an unfavorable experience for some students with conditional offers. By basing admissions decisions on final Grade 11 grades instead, the university was able to grant early offers of admission to high-achieving students.
We found the program to be successful, and increasingly so as we continue to expand it. We are at the end of our second year of the early admissions program, and every year we are finding more high-achieving qualified applicants interested and eligible in early admissions and applying earlier.
What were some challenges you faced?
Our department faced many challenges, starting from the very first stages. We were faced with skepticism from some faculty members and other departments who doubted that students could maintain their high GPA in their senior year and thus disqualify themselves from admission. Through the historical admissions data we gathered, we found that these high-achieving students were extremely likely to maintain their GPA in their final year of high school which was also supported by the evaluation of our pilot of this pathway. In addition we learned how to ask for the right kind of information on the application so we can review and enrol more students for this application process without disrupting processing for the larger pool of applicants.
What do you hope attendees will learn from this presentation?
I hope others will learn the importance of collaboration across departments and how establishing institutionally innovative programs such as this can bolster student enrolment numbers in an increasingly competitive environment.
What are you looking forward to at the AACRAO SEM Conference?
There’s only one conference in the U.S. that focuses on strategic enrollment management that reaches such a high number of institutions from North America and beyond. This conference is about people in distinct roles from different types of institutions with similar issues to tackle and similar ventures to explore. Although Canadian institutions tend to be structured a little differently, we face the same hurdles as American colleges and universities.