The University Office of Admissions has been working to reach out to minority students in a recent attempt to increase both racial and economic diversity. Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said that increasing diversity is a top priority for the Office of Admissions.
“There are a lot of things we do to recruit under-served students to the University,” Roberts said. “We need the help of the entire University community: the faculty, the students, the alumni. There are 18 admission deans, and we can only reach so far.”
Roberts said his office has been working to create partnerships with national and regional college-preparatory organizations to achieve this goal.
“[We have] Quest Bridge [which] … we established about five years ago,” Roberts said. “There’s the Posse Foundation. We had our first Posse class this year. There’s a really great school in Newport News, Virginia, called The Achievable Dream Academy, and we have a partnership there. It allows us to connect with organizations whose primary mission is to identify and prepare low-income and minority students for college.”
Roberts also said the Office of Admissions visited 287 high schools in Virginia, up from 208 schools last year. Jeannine Lalonde, senior assistant dean in the Office of Admissions, said determining who travels to these schools is based on region, with each admissions officer assigned a certain geographic area.
“We specialize in our areas, and do some data to figure out which schools have students that want to talk to us," Lalonde said. "But there are some schools that we’re going to go to all of the time.”
Lalonde said she covers Northern Virginia and goes to every public school there — in addition to some private schools — and speaks with students about their upcoming options for college.
“We go to the guidance office or the career center,” Lalonde said. “And we meet with students. … We have a short presentation about academic options and what we look for when we read applications, and then we let the students ask us questions from there.”
Roberts said another goal of travelling to high schools is to talk to prospective students’ parents about admissions and financial aid.
“We travel with Harvard, Princeton and Yale,” Roberts said. “[This] trip is designed specifically to recruit under-served students. We established that about seven or eight years ago. We travel to rural areas, urban areas, where we’re more likely to see students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Roberts said the Office of Admissions will invite students to the University and pay for their travel, and will also waive the application fee for students who have financial need.
The University has also reached out to the principals of roughly 80 high schools — all of which have populations where more than half of the students are being served free or reduced lunch.
“We invited them to nominate students to come for summer programs here,” Roberts said. “Like Leadership on the Lawn — for free.”
Roberts wrote to the same 80 principals to inform them of the Blue Ridge Scholarship, a scholarship based both on merit and need.
“We distribute the Blue Ridge Scholarships,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot. It never seems like it’s enough, but we do a great deal and we certainly want to connect diverse students with members of our community — so they can talk to them about the experience here, what it’s like culturally.”
Roberts chaired a presidential task force on communication and access in the past year to examine how the University presents itself, communicate with underserved students and offer recommendations to University President Teresa Sullivan.
“It’s extremely important,” Roberts said. “It can’t be merely an admission effort because we’re a limited scope. We need everybody’s involvement, and if people have ideas and suggestions and they want to be involved, we want to hear from them.”
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