We’re in the process of shifting gears here. My colleagues and I are coming in off the road, settling back into the office, and preparing to move from focusing on recruitment (our task for the past few months) to focusing on selection (our task for the next few months).

In the spirit of application season, I wanted to share a video with you. We interviewed several of my colleagues a few months ago to discuss what exactly it is we’re doing in our admission process — and what we’re looking for in the applications you seniors are working on right now.

For many students, the college search does not end with the discovery of one top-choice school (this was the case for me; see my post from last year on “the perfect college”). But for some the search does end this way. Some students visit a particular campus, meet a tour guide or current student, or sit in on a class, and things just click – and they know they’ve found their top-choice school.

If that describes your experience with Richmond, then our Early Decision application option is definitely something you want to consider.

Early Decision is a great way to streamline the application process if you know you’re willing to commit to attending Richmond. Here’s how it works:  You apply by November 15 (for fall early decision) and submit a contract saying that you will enroll at Richmond if accepted; we review your application; and you receive your decision on or around December 15. Not only is the turnaround time much faster, but you learn much earlier of your acceptance, and you know where you’ll be next fall – at your top-choice school – before the winter holidays.

There are a lot of common questions we get from students who are considering Early Decision. Here are some important facts that will hopefully help answer those questions:

Early Decision is a binding agreement. This means that you agree to enroll at Richmond if admitted, and to withdraw your applications from other colleges without being able to compare options. We do this in fairness to other applicants, both at Richmond and elsewhere; if you break your commitment at Richmond, you’ve basically denied three or four regular-decision applicants an opportunity to be admitted, and if you’re committed to Richmond but you’re admitted elsewhere because you’ve kept your applications in “just to see,” you’ve basically denied other applicants at those institutions the opportunity to be admitted.

Our Early Decision acceptance rate is higher than our regular decision acceptance rate. It can vary quite a bit from year to year, given changes in the size of the pool and what we’re looking for, but in recent history the early decision acceptance rate has been quite a bit higher than our regular rate of 32-38%. We love to see students who are so excited about Richmond that they’re willing to commit early, and this is the #1 way we take your interest into account in our process. We also don’t know what the context of our regular applicant pool will look like, so we are more inclined to lock in as many academically competitive students as possible while we have the chance.

Applying Early Decision will not negatively affect your financial aid package. This is something to be careful about with many colleges. There are schools that will give ED applicants a smaller aid package because they already have the students “locked in.” At Richmond, our need-blind admission policy and commitment to meet 100% of demonstrated need extend to Early Decision applicants. So you are guaranteed the exact same need-based aid package you would receive if you applied Regular Decision. No strings attached.

Early Decision applicants can submit an estimated financial aid form with their application. Upon notification of acceptance, you’ll also receive an estimated financial aid package. Final numbers are, of course, dependent upon submission of the FAFSA and tax returns in February, but our financial aid office can usually predict fairly accurately what things will look like based on estimated figures. (“What about before I apply?” you ask. Remember, we guarantee to meet whatever your demonstrated need is after your Expected Family Contribution. There are some good EFC calculators out there – see our financial aid site for links – and if you get a good sense of what your EFC looks like, you’ll have a good idea of what we would offer to make up the rest. If you have particular or situation-specific questions, contact our finanical aid office.)

Early Decision applicants are eligible for all merit scholarships. While we do not offer merit scholarships specifically for ED students, all students who apply early are given full consideration for both the Richmond Scholars program (where the faculty committees don’t really know whether a student is already committed or not) and for the Presidential Scholars program. As with need-based aid, it won’t count negatively against you that you’re already committed to enroll. However, merit scholarships are not awarded until March or early April, so if your enrollment is dependent upon comparing merit offers from different universities, Early Decision may not be the best choice.

If you decide later in the process that you want to commit Early Decision, you have a second chance. Our winter Early Decision option means that you can still apply early on January 15. We’ll consider the winter ED pool in light of the fall ED pool, before we look at the regular decision pool, so you get the same benefits listed above – and you receive your decision on or around February 15.

Everything you need to know about applying Early Decision can be found on our Admission Timeline. Click the fall or winter box for a list of deadlines and requirements. The only additional application pieces we require of early decision applicants are the Early Decision Contract – signed by you, your parents, and your school counselor/official – as well as First Quarter/Trimester grades for fall ED applicants (we will be looking at your senior year progress!)

If you have any questions, please be in touch with our office or post your questions here on the blog. We’re happy to help counsel students and families that are considering Early Decision – we know it’s a commitment, and we want to help you make sure it’s the right decision and help you through the process.

We look forward to seeing your applications!

By Tom

Ahhhhhhhh.

That’s the collective sigh I can almost hear being released around the admission office this week. With fall travel, application season, spring visit programs, and most recently spring travel behind us, we have done the bulk of our work in bringing together the Class of 2013, and we can finally take a step back and breathe. It’s been a whirlwind of a year – a very exciting year – and it’s great to know that our hard work (and yours!) has paid off.

Enrolled Students

We’re thoroughly excited about the new first-year class. It’s probably the most exciting and dynamic class we’ve ever enrolled here at Richmond, and we look forward to welcoming you in August!

For all enrolled students, newspiders.richmond.edu is your new best friend. I’m sure most of you have created a student account and logged in to fill out some of the forms already (you have to wait for a snail-mail letter that includes your University login information in order to do so). The site gives you a calendar and lots of information about what happens next. Peer Academic Advisers should be in touch with you within the next month or two to help you as you begin to plan your schedule and get ready for life at Richmond. In the meantime, feel free to be in touch with any questions you may have!

Wait-Listed Students

For those of you on the wait list, here’s the news. We are not going to the wait list at this time, but we will be closely monitoring the situation over the next few weeks, as other universities go to their wait lists, to see how it impacts our enrollment. We’ll be in touch within two or three weeks to give you a status update and outlook. We’d just ask you to sit tight for the moment. If you have any questions, let us know.

By Tom

Meet the Class of 2013! Geographically, that is. We’ve designed a Google Map to give you a sense of just where our students are coming from. We’ll be updating it throughout the month of April as more students enroll, so be sure to keep an eye on the progress. And enrolled students should check to find their new spider!

One word of clarification:  this map isn’t an accurate representation of how many students are enrolled. We’re only adding one spider per geographic location, so at present the spider on Nashville represents two students, the spider on Nanjing, China represents two students, and the spider on Chicago represents three students (just to give you a couple of examples – there are plenty more).

Hope you find it fun and informative!

By Tom

Well, we had another highly competitive year for admission and, as is always the case, we had many more qualified applicants than we have space for in our class. Those of you who have been offered a spot on the wait list are students whom we believe are fully qualified and would contribute greatly to our campus but for whom we don’t, given our size limitations, have space at present. Selective admission is a difficult process for us, as we try to select a class from among many strong, similarly-qualified applicants.

There are quite a few myths and rumors out there about how wait lists work, so I want to spend a few moments busting up some of the myths and perhaps confirming some others. Here goes.

We have no idea whether or not we’re going to go to the wait list this year (or any year for that matter) – that’s why we have a wait list. If we knew we’d need to admit more students, we’d have done so already. Typically, we won’t have a strong sense of whether or not we’ll go to the wait list until the very end of April/beginning of May. We have been able to go to the wait list three out of the last five years.

We won’t know how many students are on the wait list until after April 15 when all students have decided. Typically about half of the students offered a place on the wait list will accept that offer. We offer spots to hundreds of students, but we don’t release the final number.

The wait list is not an actual ranked list, so you don’t get a number after you accept a place on it. Should we go to the wait list, we will go back into the admission committee and reevaluate all applicants on the wait list using the same holistic process we use in regular admission, which as you know places greatest emphasis on academic achievement. The one additional, secondary factor that may be added into that holistic process in wait list review is your level of interest. If Richmond is your first choice, please be sure to let us know of that. Feel free to check in with us once May rolls around to see how things are shaping up and let us know if you’re still interested at that point. Again, your academic and personal merits will always be the primary basis of the decisions that the committee makes – interest is secondary to that.

Some things you should do:

• Confirm your spot on the wait list online
• Read the Wait List 2009 brochure thoroughly
• Make your deposit at another university to secure your place in their class by May 1
• Send us additional academic information (e.g. third-quarter grades) that becomes available
• Check in with us periodically to let us know you’re still interested (periodically=every few weeks or so)
• Visit campus IF AND ONLY IF you need to learn more about Richmond or decide whether Richmond is right for you

Some things you shouldn’t do:

• Call us every day
• Call us every week
• Try to bribe us
• Send us more letters of recommendation
• Send us crazy, ridiculous items to try to get our attention
• Send us anything other than additional academic information
• Visit campus to try to convince us of your interest or make a case in person (a phone call or e-mail is just as effective and will be looked upon equally)

We do our very best to keep you posted on what’s going on. We will contact you by mid-June at the latest to let you know about the status of the wait list. Watch your e-mail once mid-June rolls around for news and further instructions.

We understand how difficult this process can be, and we try to be as forthright as possible, but when it comes to the wait list there are simply a lot of unknown factors. I am confident that all of you have many wonderful options from which to choose, and that you will find yourselves excited and content next autumn, whether you are at Richmond or elsewhere.