Calvin News

Full, but not full.

That's the message the Calvin College admissions office is hoping to send with a recent blitz of e-mails and letters to high school students still considering their college options this fall.

The college has informed prospective students that as of now it has enough students ready to become part of its first-year class this fall. In fact, Calvin is looking at a first-year class of 1,040 students and has begun a wait-list of students who are not yet accepted but want to attend.

But it also wants 2007 high school graduates to keep Calvin in mind as a college possibility this fall.

Confusing? Maybe a little says Calvin vice president for enrollment and external programs Tom McWhertor.

"As of now we have a full class," says McWhertor, "but we've also begun a wait-list and we really hope that students who were thinking about Calvin will consider adding their names to that wait-list."

Why? Because each summer Calvin experiences something many other colleges also experience: "melt."

That's the slang term admissions offices use for students who have been accepted, paid a deposit and yet still don't show up in the fall. What Calvin hopes doesn't happen is that it discourages too many students, experiences its melt and then ends up short of its goals.

"It's tricky," says McWhertor, "but we think that there are families who will stay on hold with us until a spot opens up."

Nonetheless just being in this predicament is something McWhertor finds a good problem to have.

That's because just three years ago Calvin welcomed 902 first-year students to campus. If Calvin hits 1,040 first-year students this fall that would represent a jump of 15% in three years.

"We're happy to be in the position we're in this year," says McWhertor, "because in 2004 we were very disappointed. Just three years later to be in a position to begin a wait list the earliest we've ever done so is pretty amazing."

So, why the turnaround?

McWhertor says a big factor is a Calvin decision five years ago to begin connecting with high school sophomores. That included a decision in 2004 to expand significantly the size of Calvin's prospect pool, the high school students to whom it sends recruiting materials.

"We'd always shied away from contacting high school sophomores," says McWhertor. "Our philosophy was we wanted to let them be high schoolers. But other schools were getting to them already as sophomores and we were finding that by the time we started reaching them as juniors their choice set -- the schools they were considering -- was formed already and we couldn't break into it. So we reluctantly began to add sophomores to our prospect pool and it has paid off."

In addition Calvin began to acquire more names of high school students in an effort to expand the number of students it was making contact with, from 22,000 prospects in 2003-2004 to about 28,000 prospects in 2006-2007, a 27% increase.

Just putting Calvin, and what it has to offer, in front of more people, says McWhertor, makes a big difference.

"It seems a little counterintuitive," he admits, "but the reality is that a lot of people find when they come across Calvin for the first time that this is the kind of place they've always been looking for. For students and parents to discover a college that offers first-class academics and a strikingly Christian foundation is for many a eureka moment. So for us to purchase more names and to put ourselves in front of more people pays off."

Indeed for 2007-2008 McWhertor says the college is looking at a prospect pool of more than 30,000 high school students.

He notes too that one of the biggest positives for the college about the burgeoning first-year class this fall is the jump from last year in what Calvin calls AHANA students (the acronym stands for African America, Hispanic, Asian and Native American students).

As of late June Calvin was at 99 students for this fall from an AHANA background, a jump of 34 students from the 65 AHANA students who enrolled in the fall of 2006.

"It's not a big number," says McWhertor, "but it's a big jump as a percentage in just one year and we are very encouraged. We've worked hard in some intentional ways to do a better job bringing AHANA students to campus, and supporting those who enroll, and it is nice to see those efforts bearing fruit."