Tufts' effort to maintain a diverse campus took a hit this year, at least as far as African-Americans are concerned.
Data from the Tufts Admissions Office on the Class of 2010 shows a marked decrease in the number of African-American students who chose to attend Tufts.
African-American students compose four percent of the freshman class, or 52 students, compared to six percent of the sophomore class, or 90 students.
While the number of African-American students who applied to Tufts and were accepted remained constant, fewer of those accepted students actually chose to attend Tufts, according to Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin. That number, or the "yield," dropped from 32 percent of accepted students to 25 percent for the Class of 2010.
The lower yield traces its roots to the hyper-competitive world of elite college admissions, where top colleges and universities scramble for as large a piece of the diversity pie as possible. And while those schools can turn down a qualified white student and know that another one is waiting in line, the pool of qualified African-American applicants is tiny by comparison.
"The problem is that pools [of African-American applicants] are not infinite, and that's a sad statement," Coffin told the Daily.
The limited applicant pool creates a situation in which colleges fight tooth-and-nail over qualified African-American applicants. This year, Tufts and most other NESCAC schools lost that competition to places like Harvard, Princeton, Amherst and Williams.
"At Tufts, the shift is caused by the changed recruitment and financial aid policies at prominent places like Harvard, Princeton and Amherst, each of which made public commitments about expanding recruitment and redefining financial aid and the way it's rewarded," Coffin said.
Columbia University was the most recent school to make waves when it announced last week that it would replace loans with grants for any undergraduates from families who earn less than $50,000 per year.
Harvard does the same for students from families earning less than $60,000. The school also decided earlier this month to end its early admissions policy in order to give students from low-income families a better chance to compare financial aid packages. Princeton did the same shortly thereafter, and the University of Virginia followed suit this week.
What's good for Harvard and Princeton, however, is often bad for Tufts, which does not have the endowment to offer as much financial aid as some Ivy League schools.
"Harvard enrolled its largest number of African-American students ever this year," Coffin said. "Its success is our pain."
"It's delicate, because a majority of [African-American] applicants also need financial aid ... The Ivies' endowments are so enormous that they can say 'we can give financial contributions and buy your books and your plane ticket.' We're competing with these Ivies for students of color, and we are seeing less traction," Coffin said.
Even Wesleyan University, which meets 100 percent of need for undergraduates, experienced a drop in the number of African-American students who matriculated this year, according to Senior Associate Dean of Admission Greg Pyke.
"Our African-American students yield was lower than last year," Pyke said. He agreed with Coffin's assessment that Ivy League schools are taking larger pieces of the pie, but added that even lower-ranked schools have taken a toll as they've increased their efforts to draw African-American students.
"What I've noticed over the last few years is a small but growing trend for African-American students is to not only go to the Ivies, but also to accept merit aid and financial aid offers from schools further down in the [U.S. News and World Report] rankings. So the pressure's coming from above and below us."
In the NESCAC, only Williams and Amherst matriculated as many or more African-Americans as the previous year.
"We work extremely hard to make that happen," Amherst Dean of Admissions Tom Parker said. "The competition is absolutely fierce. Personally, I think this kind of competition is how we should be competing; we should be competing over issues of social justice, rather than over how many kids we can turn down."
African-Americans composed roughly ten percent of the freshman classes at both Williams and Amherst this year.
Coffin said that Tufts is taking action to reverse the shift.
"How do we recalibrate ourselves so this doesn't become a trend?" Coffin said. "If we do not react, I think we'll lose more ground. If it's our priority to increase diversity in the student body ... then to stand still - to me - doesn't feel like an option."
Coffin said that Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg gave him additional resources this year to recruit minority students.
Coffin has used that money to create a new staff position just for student of color recruitment, raising the number of admissions officers who focus on that area from two to three.
Coffin also hopes to expand the number of urban high schools that admissions officers visit. He estimates that the Admissions budget has received an additional $50,000 to $100,000 for the purpose of recruiting more students of color this year, some of which went to the new staff position.
The administration is also studying whether it has the resources to recalculate its financial aid packages to make them more generous and is constantly working to move towards need-blind admissions.
One of Tufts' most concrete programs to attract students of color is the semi-annual Telescope Conference, an opportunity for minority students and guidance counselors from urban areas to visit Tufts. Tufts Admissions provides travel grants for these students and staff to attend the conference.
Freshman Christina Thomas attended the Telescope Conference last fall. Tufts paid for her plane ticket.
"It's successful because you don't feel so marginalized and because you're around people of your own color," Thomas said. "When I took a campus tour, I was the only black person on the tour. It made me feel better to go to Telescope ... they made a good impression on me, and a lot of people who were at the conference with me [enrolled] at
Tufts."
Pyke said that Wesleyan also plans on refocusing its efforts to recruit African-American students, but he chose to not elaborate on any specific plans.
"We're not going to give up any of our secrets," Pyke said half-jokingly, revealing the cutthroat competition of the admissions game.
Until Tufts can reverse the trend, however, freshmen will have to get used to a less diverse class than that of their predecessors.
Asked if she hoped the situation would improve, Thomas replied, "Definitely. There aren't enough people of color who go to college anyway."
