Freshman class sets size record
By Carmen Castro
Staff Reporter

The incoming freshman class surpassed its initial enrollment mark by 65 students, making it the largest freshman class in TCU history, Dean of Admissions Ray Brown said.

Official enrollment for the Class of 2007 is 1,590, he said, and the only other freshman class to ever be this big was two years ago, when the class of 2005 had an enrollment of 1,514.

“This is the most amazing year for admissions and TCU as a whole,” Brown said.
The admissions staff did a great deal of brainstorming recruitment ides, which resulted in a successful enrollment rate increase, he said.

“We attend professional meetings throughout the year to pick up ideas, and we are always on the alert for ‘best practices’ that are being implemented elsewhere,” Brown said. “This all goes toward our goal of providing service to students and their families that will be exceeded by nobody.”

Since his arrival at TCU three years ago, Brown said other innovative recruitment tactics have been implemented.

“Coming in, I did not have the ‘bird in hand’ mentality but that of a futurist,” he said.

Brown said that getting information into a young person’s mind earlier improves the chances of enrolling the individual. That mentality is exactly what proved successful for the recruitment of this incoming class, many of whom began receiving university pamphlets as high school sophomores, he said.

Another innovative recruitment technique was FastApp, a simplified applications process that helped make the procedure easier for students who would not otherwise apply for admissions, Brown said. FastApp applications have some of the basic student information already completed and are available in hard copy and online, he said.

With the university’s popularity comes a tougher admissions selection process, Brown said. Last year alone, hundreds of perfectly qualified students were not admitted because of the limited space, he said.

Admissions Counselor Victoria Herrera said TCU is becoming more competitive. She said the admissions office looks for higher SAT and ACT scores in the new class that compete with the school’s score averages.

The level of admissions requirements has gone up, which is demonstrated with the Class of 2007’s average SAT scores of 1169, Brown said. This is an increase from the Class of 2006’s average of 1142, he said.

“To put this year in perspective, it is generally considered a very healthy increase if a school can increase its SAT by 3, 4 or 5 points in any given year,” Brown said. “Therefore, to increase 27 points in a year — and 12 points over a record year — is nothing short of stunning.”

For some incoming freshmen, the appeal of attending TCU was very clear.

Sarah Hufstedler, a freshman history major, said she chose TCU because of its great academic reputation after receiving the admissions application her senior year in high school.

“An older sister was interested in becoming a dance major here back when I was in sixth grade, so that’s when I first heard about TCU,” Hufstedler said.

Freshman psychology major Irais Anderton said she gave TCU a chance because of various recommendations from friends.

“It helped that it’s local and I had done stuff with the school before,” Anderton said. “Plus, I liked the close community feeling.”

Carmen Castro