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April 2004

Full April 2004 issue in PDF format

Recruiting Home-Schooled Students: Effort Required
More than a quarter-million high school students are homeschooled each year, according to some estimates. Their numbers, along with their academic and personal characteristics, make them an appealing pool of applicants, particularly for small, religiously affiliated campuses.

Online Lessons Help Students, Parents Through the First College Year
For first-generation students, participating in traditional summer orientation can be like “trying to get a drink of water from a fire hydrant — way too much information in one session,” says Charles F. Harrington, assistant vice president of academic affairs at the University of Southern Indiana.

First-Year ‘Flying Lessons’
The University of Southern Indiana’s “Flying Lessons” arrive by e-mail every seven to 10 days, just when new students and their parents need them most.

Community College’s Award-Winning Program Starts Students Off Right
The First-Year Experience program at Moraine Valley Community College in Illinois has helped new students boost their GPAs, reduce their times-to-completion, and increase their persistence. In addition, it has received national notice, including several 2003 best practice awards.

Q&A: Alumni Admissions Interviews
The University of Rochester in New York, which receives more than 10,000 applications for fewer than 1,000 freshman seats each year, expanded its alumni interview program this admissions cycle. Alumni spoke with about 2,000 applicants this year, compared to about 200 last year.

Resources
Marketing the College; Gen X’s Return to Higher Education; Student Orientation Monograph

Eighty Percent Persistence Online: How Does WGU Do It?
Western Governor’s University, an online institution that brokers distance learning courses from more than 40 non-profit and commercial institutions, boasts an 80 percent online retention rate. How?

Newswire
UC Ends Admission Promise; Journal Examines Data on Black Early Applicants

Student Activity Trends: Chocolate and Knitting
If you’d like to help students to become more engaged with campus or to feel more at home and relax, consider creating activities or organizations around chocolate and knitting.

Upcoming Conferences
Recruiting Graduate Students; AACRAO Technology Conference; Connecting Student and Academic Affairs; College Board Admission Institutes; Community College Student Development