GW’s admissions office recently introduced a new advertising campaign to attract additional students to Mount Vernon College for the fall semester.
Kathryn Napper, director of undergraduate admissions, said 50 of the 150 slots available at MVC for incoming freshman are still open. A late start in the recruitment process contributed to lagging admissions, she said.
“We did not officially begin to advertise for MVC until late December 1997,” Napper said. “That was well past the date when most people decide where they are applying.”
To attract additional students, the campaign advertises in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The International Herald-Tribune, inviting students to experience “a women’s campus in a co-ed environment.”
Napper said the University knew reaching 150 enrollees by May was unrealistic, although 175 of the 300 students who applied were accepted.
“We will not admit students just to meet the number,” said MVC Interim President Grae Baxter. “We will not admit them if they are not up to GW quality.”
GW acquired financial control of the all-women’s school in October 1996 and announced in December it will fully incorporate the college as a school of the University by June 1999.
With the integration, the GW admissions office takes on responsibility of handling MVC admissions.
Napper said the SAT scores and grades of MVC’s incoming freshmen are comparable to those of GW’s accepted student. The average SAT scores for incoming freshmen are 1245 and 1215 for GW and MVC, respectively.
Napper said she thinks the advertising campaign is a sufficient method of recruiting students to fill the available spots.
“We need to make sure we’ve done everything appropriately possible,” Napper said.
Baxter said the new advertising campaign reaches a pool of students who may not have been accepted to their first- or second-choice schools. A significant number of students have limited choices for the fall because colleges and universities across the country have accepted fewer applicants this year, she said.
She said many qualified students have visited the MVC campus in the recent weeks.
“These are students who might be interested in experiencing another option,” Baxter said. “These students may have not been interested in GW but may be interested in this new option.”
Baxter said MVC has the chance to reach the 150 mark.
“I think it is very likely, partially because we have a large proportion of international students,” Baxter said. “International students enroll later.”
