<p>As a parent of a non-minority senior waiting to hear from Wesleyan, I am very disappointed that admissions decisions appear to have been released in this way. I'm sure this was not the intent of the admissions office, but releasing the minority student scores so many days before the non-URM scores could be interpreted as divisive. There certainly is no reason that there shouldn't be a diversity weekend (I agree with the other poster that the term "students of color" just doesn't make sense), but all decisions should be mailed on the same day.</p>
<p>i totally agree. this just makes me even more antsy, and i feel like all the spots are being taken up. obviously they're not, but i'm paranoid enough about colleges as it is.</p>
<p>yea i totally agree as well, i dont think its sending a good message. then again, id probably NEVER know about this if i didnt have cc</p>
<p>You guys are being more anxious than necessary. There is a ton of acceptances coming down the pike. This is CC after all; it's easy to be misled into concluding from the postings of the high achievers here that the game is over. This board is not representative.</p>
<p>It doesn't make a difference anyway. They need materials back for the diversity weekend thing soon I believe, and since being diverse is a priority to Wes, they're just letting us know they care. It doesn't change the outcome of the decisions in the least. Don't read into it too much. Amherst and Williams do a sort of 'Early Write' this is similar, nothing to be too alarmed about. Plus schools send out acceptances and rejections with different mail types so the acceptances might get to their location faster.</p>
<p>ridethecliche, no this doesn't change the outcome of decisions, I presume... (thought it might, if they draw conclusions about minority yield based on projected attendance at the "Students of Color" weekend, and change their decisions on non-minorities prior to their announced decision date, April 1st). However, the fact that minorities are receiving the results of their decisions two weeks before non-minorities does separate the groups in a very specific way. My dream for the world is that individuals see each other as colorless with varying cultures that each appreciate. Giving minorities two weeks notice ahead of non-minorities fosters the perception that they are very different and should be kept separate. I think this is probably not the interpretation that Wesleyan, of all places, would wish to advance. But, through this policy of early notification for minorities only, non-minorities (as you can see from the thread) may have a different perception than what Wesleyan may have intended. But, frankly, Wesleyan has so many high-achieving non-minority applicants with which they can fill a class, that they may not care about non-minority perceptions.</p>
<p>Guiltguru-I am with you on this-it just doesn't sit well with me.( as my s waits to hear-
Wes is the reach so we shall see..........</p>
<p>One assumes that only minorities received early notification. This focus on minorities and the ignoring of non-minority earlies is intriguing.</p>
<p>lpart, a common misconception... I am Quiltguru with a Q (I do quilting for a hobby), not Guiltguru with a G (though perhaps my D feels differently!).</p>
<p>Note that unlike at schools like Williams, this isn't that much significantly earlier. I don't think they're ignoring non-minorities, or even really giving special preference to minorities (and I definitely don't think they'll be changing any decisions based on projected attendance to SOC weekend) - I think they really just want to make sure students have enough time to make plans to attend.</p>
<p>I got to Wesfest early last year, while SOC weekend was still going on, and everyone was perfectly friendly and I wound up going to one of their activities and there weren't any problems or anything, even though I'm completely Caucasian. It's really not divisive, I think - just to help SOC students realize that this is someplace where they can feel at home.</p>
<p>Quiltguro-sorry(-guess my verilux need some fine tuning)]</p>
<p>but I am still with you on this</p>
<p>Those of you who have read, "The Gatekeepers" may recall that Wesleyan begins stockpiling the admissions mailings in a dark little corridor in the basement of Reid House, starting around January. It's not a very high-tech operation; one work-study employee probably does all the carrying, lifting and shifting of box upon box of envelopes until the widely accepted (among COFHE members) April 1st mailing date. For them to be able to cull close to a thousand letters to URMs and mail them out two weeks early takes a tremendous amount of organization and bespeaks not only of the importance that Wesleyan places upon the "differences" between all the applicants but, is also a token of the sheer competition for this particular group of applicants.</p>
<p>Much has been written (on the CC board and elsewhere) about the limited number of URMs who score at the median level for boards accepted by the most selective colleges in the country. I've looked at some of the stats of the people who contribute to this discussion group and my heart soars at the level of accomplishment some have achieved. And, it boggles my mind that these are the people who start all of the chances threads!</p>
<p>I've also taken an informal peek at some of the places from where some of these folk have already received fat envelopes. Judging from some of the cross-posts on other discussion groups, Wesleyan has about a two week window whereby to convince a small number of highly sought after people that it is a better "fit" for them than the likes of Williams, Brown, Swarthmore, Pomona, William and Mary, Penn, Macalester and HYP, down the line.</p>
<p>I can understand the stress that it has added to an already stressful situation; I don't think they foresaw how rapidly news would travel before the bulk of the mailings were on their way. But, frankly even if they had, would things have been any different if they had mailed out "likely letters" instead? Or, made discreet phone calls, instead? It's the same prinicple, really.</p>
<p>Zuma- Good point. Anxiety about early notification for minority students appears in several forums. More so than last year I think, from my perusal of archived postings.</p>
<p>Wes and it's competitors, engage in a multitude of ways of conveying to highly competitive students that they are accepted before the majority population get their news . Call them minorities if you prefer, but we all know that are talking about, either historically underrepresented or historically disenfranchised minorities (blacks, latina/os, native americans) when we have this discussion.</p>
<p>It is also worth noting that recruited athletes (who are also extremely desirable and it's extremely competitive to yield) also are notified (often verbally) before others that they will be accepted; this isn't something that is only done for URMs.</p>
<p>I am a student of color recruiter so I'd like to add a few things:</p>
<p>It's is extraordinarily competitive for the top SOC's. I recently had a conversation with a YALE rep about, how "over the top competitive" it is for Yale to get the top kids of color. It's simply a matter of supply and demand: Everyone wants the top students. Also, money is a huge factor in who a school will yield. Name recognition doesn't carry as much weight either. Harvard's yield for it's black kids is, year in an year out, 10% pts lower than it's overall yield.</p>
<p>I do boarding school admissions, but am also actively involved in college admissions. I launched and organized a, national student of color college fair and every school you can name showed up. We even required that the school send a professional rep and not an alum or a parent. Everyone is fighting for the same 2000 kids. The IVY's matriculated less than 1000 black kids last year; we aren't talking about huge numbers here.</p>
<p>A school like Wesleyan is looking to have about 8% of it's class be black and about 7% be Latino. They would never tell you that, but as someone who is admissions, I can tell you that you accept exactly who you want to have. All you have to do is look at the three and five year diversity numbers and you can tell what a school either desires or the best it can do without compromising it's integrity. In other words, Wes may want to be 12% and 13% Latino (reflective of the country at large) but they can't in good conscience arrive at those numbers without accepting students that they do not have confidence would be able to thrive in their program, or without taking kids that produce such a backlash from their connected and empowered Caucasian constituency that the reward isn't justified by the risk.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the, 7-9% for blacks and latinos respectively-a figure that has been very consistent for many years-includes all recruited athletes nad alums as well.</p>
<p>As a future student at Wes, you should want the very best URM's that Wes can get attract on the campus. Well, because of the ridiculously competitive nature of yielding URM's, these diversity weekends have become an integral tool in helping you to yield them.</p>
<p>Furthermore, a good chunk of URM's lack the financial resources to be able to just buy a plane ticket at the last second and come to Wes on a revisit, so when you establish a date for a diversity weekend, you need to notify someone well in advance in order for them to make arrangement to get a car ride, an airline ticket or a train ticket in order to get to the weekend.</p>
<p>If nothing I've shared has been cogent, keep in mind that all the other selective schools are DOING THE EXACT same thing. I know a student who heard from Cornell; I know two other students who heard from Swarthmore several weeks ago that they were in. These schools also have diversity weekends and they want students to commit to their weekend before they commit to another schools diversity weekend because, as you know, their yield will be higher if they get a student to get to campus for the first time or get back to campus. Many URMs have never visited the these schools; this is a big difference between the data on white students who have usually visited.</p>
<p>Many schools use the wink letters to get their message across. Columbia is an example of a school that often does that with it's URMs and others. </p>
<p>One thing that you know when your in admissions is that students often keep themselves from falling allowing their guarded heart to fall in love with a school to the extent that they would if they knew they would get in. As soon as a student hears that they are in, they often see their interest in other schools begin to dissipate. This is why a school like Wellesley has their early notification process. I spoke with a veteran rep from one of Wesleyan's main competitors last week and he told me that he wishes that they still had early notification. He talked about how it increases your likelihood of yielding the kids that you want.</p>
<p>Anyway, hopefully this will help you to feel like you are not being discriminated against. Wes isn't taking any more URMs because of this early acceptance; they are just trying to keep up with the competitions recruiting tactics and trying to increase their ability to yield the best URMs in the country.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Admisssionsrep</p>
<p>are asians considered minorities?</p>
<p>what exactly are minorities? int'l students??</p>
<p>i'm a minority who applied to wesleyan and i havent heard from them
hmm?</p>
<p>me88, Asians are minorities but not URMs.</p>
<p>where URM stands for "under-represented minority"</p>
<p>There are fine differences among "Students of color," "minorities," and "under-represented minorities." Asians are generally included in the first two but not the third. International Students may be minorities, but mainly it just means that - they come from another country. The admissions office likes to boost its numbers of international students, too, however.</p>
<p>Asians are not URMs from a Wesleyan standpoint, but from a Washington and Lee standpoint, it may be different. It's a school by school thing, but for most selective schools, Asians are far more represented than the 4% of the American population that they consitute.</p>