Admissions goals for prospective students revealed

On October 8, 709 prospective students and their families will make their way to Union, a record number for Union’s Admissions Office. 52 of the 301 visiting prospective students will be coming during the weekend, and staying for events during Monday’s open house. As students who will make up the class of 2017 come to visit Union, criteria for acceptance is examined.

While Union is a school that competes on the national level with others in statistics, its admissions approach takes more than numbers into account.

In regard to academics, Director of Admissions Ann Fleming Brown stressed that Union’s “number one charge for the Admissions department is to improve the academic profile of the college.”

This is done, Brown said, through “good grades, rigor of the [prospective student’s] academic program, SAT scores if submitted, [and the] personal writing [the] student presents [in the essay].” They also take into consideration the recommendations of teachers for the applicant.

When creating an incoming first year class, the Admissions Office adheres to a set of goals to carry out and improve as time goes on. Over the years, part of their plan has been to increase the number of international students, students of diverse backgrounds, and students from different geographic regions.

International students now account for 7 percent of the student population, while 75 percent of students from the U.S. are from New England or New York State, leaving only 18 percent for the rest of the country. The new admissions goals attempt to diversify these statistics by including more students from out-of-state and outside the U.S.

The Admissions Office hopes that many students will find their “perfect fit” at Union this upcoming weekend.