New Outreach Program Increases the Number of Black Students Accepted in Early Admissions Program at the University of Chicago

In the JBHE annual survey of black freshmen this past fall, the University of Chicago ranked 26th among the nation's 30 highest-ranked universities in the percentage of black students in its freshman class. Furthermore, for the past decade, the University of Chicago has consistently ranked near the bottom in JBHE's annual surveys of black freshmen at the nation's strongest universities.

This year the University of Chicago focused on increasing the number of black and other minority applicants in the early admissions process. In November the university invited 120 prospective minority students to campus for an overnight program prior to the early application deadline. One third of these prospective black students were flown to Chicago at the university's expense.

As a result of these recruitment programs, early applications were up 12 percent from a year ago. Blacks were nearly 5 percent of all students admitted early to the university. While the percentage of blacks in the early admit pool remained the same from a year ago, the actual number of blacks admitted early increased by 15 percent.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.