After a year of unpredictable turns in Tufts' financial aid budget that forced the university to suspend its unofficial need-blind policy, admissions officers by early summer found themselves with an unexpected surplus of $500,000 in financial aid funds and a chance to revisit their admissions decisions.
Economic conditions led administrators to expect the number of financial aid applicants accepting offers of admission to rise and the number of no-need students to drop. But the exact opposite happened, and many of the rejected financial aid packages went back into the pot.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions was left with a surprising opportunity: to turn to the waitlist with the goal of admitting students who had barely missed the cut for initial admittance and for whom, in many cases, the only distinguishing factor from accepted students was their level of financial need.
"It was kind of like winning the lottery," Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin said.
The university practiced an unofficial need-blind policy for the Classes of 2011 and 2012, but budget restraints this year caused the university to put the procedure on hold for the last five percent, or 850 applicants, of the Class of 2013.
With the welcomed shock of the surplus in mind, the admissions office was able to place over 700 transfer applicantsand about 400 more students from the waitlistinto the same pool and select the best applicants.
Various indicators of diversity, such as the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, in the admitted Class of 2013 lagged behind last year's numbers. Officers kept this in mind as they sought topush statistics to rates similar to those in years past. Gender, demographic distribution and academic interests — in particular, whether a student was interested in a liberal arts or engineering education — also played a role in decisions, Coffin said.
"The pool is so deep that the waitlisted students are often as academically strong as the kids that got in on March 30," Coffin said, referring to the time of year when most applicants generally learn of their admissions decisions.
The Class of 2013 was full with 1,275 students by the start of May, but admissions officers predicted that some might drop out over the summer. Around 50 to 60 ended up doing so, Coffin said. Coupled with the aid surplus, this presented officers with the chance to let in more applicants in a need-blind manner.
On the whole, officers took 58 students off the waitlist and enrolled about 65 transfers, according to Coffin. Last year, the admissions office did not touch the waitlist but enrolled around 70 transfer students, Coffin said.
About half of the waitlisted and transfer students admitted received financial aid, Coffin said, relatively more than the financial aid rate for the entire Class of 2013, which stood at 35 percent.
In all, the summer admissions action brought diversity indicators close to last year's levels. "The reality was our results were eerily normal," Reilly said.
This year's unique situation arose after a roller-coaster year in which academic and financial aid officers used rather conservative models, with many schools expecting the worst around every turn. Tufts had a tighter budget to work with, as the university announced last year that aid would increase by 12 percentto meet the need of returning students but would stay stagnant for new students. The total financial aid budget this year was $52 million, with $13 million going toward incoming freshmen and transfers.
But every year brings surprises, according to Director of Financial Aid Patricia Reilly.
"Based on the individual decisions of 4,000 18-year-olds, we come out with an answer," Reilly said. "Even in the best year, there's a high degree of unpredictability."
As admissions and financial aid officers enter the next cycle, though, they remain unsure of how the fallout of the economic crisis will impact the process for the Class of 2014.
"Every year," Coffin said, "you kind of buckle yourself in for the ride and say, ‘Here we go again.'"
Freshman Stella Benezra had applied to Tufts last fall but got deferred and then waitlisted to her school of choice. About a week after sending a deposit to another school, she received a fateful call from the admissions office and found herself on the phone with Coffin, who told her she was in.
"It was — oh my God — so thrilling," she said. "Tufts was my dream school, so I was obviously really happy."
For freshman Austin Mak, another applicant placed on the waitlist, his call came in mid-June.
"I was just hanging out with my friends and I got a call from admissions," he said. "I sent in my acceptance that night."
Sophomore Tommy Hu, a transfer student who attended Boston College last year, said his wait this summer was suspenseful, as he was rejected from Tufts the previous year.
"It took me like a moment to realize I had actually got in," he said.
