CrewDad
November 30, 2009, 12:21am
8
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<p>The misunderstanding is how “awarded” is understood. It is confusing. </p>
<p>If Smith increased their yield of top-rated students from 10-12 percent to 20-25 percent due to the STRIDE, you can extrapolate ~ 8-15 percent of the 20-25 percent yield of top-rated students is due to STRIDE awards…Smith would have to offer many hundreds of STRIDE awards to achieve 51 STRIDE acceptances. And if Smith was expecting 60 STRIDE students to enroll, that alone indicates many more than 50 are offered.</p>
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In an effort to entice more high-achieving students to attend Smith, the administration has increased the monetary value of the STRIDE undergraduate research program scholarship from $5,000 per year to $15,000. The award hike went into effect this year, but only for entering STRIDE students.</p>
<p>“The STRIDE program is an admission incentive program,” said Dean of Enrollment Audrey Smith. The program is offered to a small percentage of incoming first-years, and pairs students with faculty members working on a variety of research projects. STRIDE is designed to increase the yield of high-achieving students, or the percentage of these students accepted to Smith that choose to enroll, Smith said.</p>
<p>Peter de Villiers, the faculty coordinator of the STRIDE program, says the research scholarships have doubled the acceptance rate for high-performing students since the program was instituted.</p>
<p>“It is an important part of our admissions strategies for attracting the academically strongest or best prepared students to come to the college,” de Villiers said. “Ten to 12 percent of those top-rated students in the applicant pool used to say yes to Smith before the STRIDE program was implemented, and now 20 to 25 percent of that group say yes to the offer from Smith.”</p>
<p>The yield for this group used to consistently exceed 25 percent and has declined in the past few years, according to Smith. The yield for all admitted-students normally ranges from 36 to 40 percent.</p>
<p>“We were concerned with the range of students we were losing,” Smith said, explaining why the STRIDE award amount was increased. The college was losing academically promising students to Ivy League schools, state universities and other liberal arts colleges such as Mount Holyoke
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<p>[STRIDE</a> award hike aims to grab more top studens - News](<a href=“http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2009/10/08/News/Stride.Award.Hike.Aims.To.Grab.More.Top.Studens-3795839.shtml]STRIDE ”>http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2009/10/08/News/Stride.Award.Hike.Aims.To.Grab.More.Top.Studens-3795839.shtml )</p>