At a breakfast meeting Tuesday with the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce, President
Roger Hull quipped that the College's admissions picture looked good enough that
admissions can “close up shop and leave.”
But no one is “doing a Roger Hull and heading off to the Adirondacks,” says
Dan Lundquist, vice president for admissions and financial aid. There's still lots of
work to do.
At 2:25 p.m. on Wednesday, Union had received deposits from 534 members of the Class of
2003. In about a week, as more replies trickle in, Lundquist says admissions could be
“knocking on the door of 550,” a reasonable number considering that a typical
“summer melt” of 30 will bring in a class close to the budgeted 520.
The best news may be the quality of the class, Lundquist says. There are more high-end
students than before, with some 50 Union Scholars. That's 10 more than last year and
nearly twice that of two years ago. “There are a lot of kids who were 1200 testers
with B averages who did not get in,” he says. “Those are students that we were
recruiting just a few years ago.”
As the class settles in, Lundquist said he hopes to see little use of the wait list by
other colleges. “This is the one time of the year that I wish my competitors
well,” he said.