Scott Friedhoff attributes increased interest to changes in College’s promotions
Emily Bartelheim
News Editor
This year, The College of Wooster received approximately 5,200 student applicants, a record-breaking number. Dr. Scott Friedhoff, vice president for enrollment and college relations, attributes this increase to the change in the way the “Wooster story” is told.
The two main challenges with recruiting students in the past have been explaining what exactly I.S. is and how we do it best. “Wooster has always had the challenge of describing its senior Independent Study. Unless you know the details of it, the term itself is terrible -— it has nothing to do with what we’re doing here as a senior capstone project,” Friedhoff said. “[The Office of Admissions] has had a real challenge of describing it [to prospective students and families], and acknowledging that the four years leading up to it are the best.”
Friedhoff also noted that people are starting to learn more about the College. “The College has always been a great place, but it takes a great leader and an entire community to tell the story well, and that’s what we’re seeing the biggest change in.” The three main “messages” Friedhoff highlighted in an interview were the fact that the College has started to brag a little about itself as well as the city of Wooster, the College’s sense of pride and spirit and its promotions that now describe Wooster as a “premier” college.
Another thing that the College has also started to brag about is the fact that Wooster is one of the top 20 liberal arts colleges for graduates who go on to earn their PhD, and Wooster has been one of only two schools consistently on U.S. News’ and World Report’s list for schools with outstanding undergraduate research opportunities and senior capstone projects for the past 10 years (the other school is Princeton). The College of Wooster YouTube station also created a video to promote the city of Wooster as another attractive part of the College.
Other additions that have helped increase interest in Wooster are the College’s new YouTube videos featured on its website. The video currently on Wooster’s homepage, called “America’s Premier College for Mentored Undergraduate Research,” had almost 4,500 views after just a few days. “The more views these videos have, the more prospective families want to learn about us,” Friedhoff noted.
“Our type of small liberal arts institution is already well-represented, so to get out of this sea of sameness and become more distinctive, we put together another way by using the word, ‘premier,’” Friedhoff explained. “We’ve been called ‘the hidden gem,’ which I think is okay, but I don’t think we need to be hidden anymore … it’s okay to brag a little bit.”
Because of these changes in the way Wooster portrays itself, more people are interested in learning about the College now more than ever. “We’ve had record numbers of [prospective] students on campus this year,” Friedhoff commented. “It’s been a goal: to get more families on campus to learn more about this place, and it’s been working, which was one of the reasons we saw such a big increase in applications recently.”
As many already know, “40 Colleges That Change Lives,” by Loren Pope, contributes to many prospective students’ and their family’s interest in the College, listing Wooster as one of the top schools in the country.
Friedhoff also commented that most students at the College were “A– students [in high school]. 40 percent of our students ranked in the top ten percent of their high school,” but nowadays the College is targeting students that may have been B or B+ students in high school but have potential. “Many colleges wouldn’t admit a B or B+ student, but we can because we dig deeper into the student’s files and how they represent themselves.”
Katie Markovitch ’12, an intern at the Office of Admissions, attributes a great deal of the improvement of Wooster’s self-portrayal to Friedhoff. “I think Scott has done a fantastic job of reaching out to students who not only deserve to be here academically, but who will find Wooster to be the best fit, both socially and extracurricularly,” she said. “His take on recruitment and vision for the incoming classes have helped to form cohesive, happy groups of students and Wooster is benefitting from it … simply put: these kids want to be here.”
What’s left for Wooster to improve on? “Some of our laboratory spaces could be better, we have Mateer that’s a little outdated so it would be good to improve the overall educational experience,” Friedhoff said. “We need to tell the story everywhere in order to better solidify our national standing … our sole goal should be doing better what we already do well.”
With how well things are going, Friedhoff thinks “we’ll see yet another increase [in applicants] next year.”