The Laura Lee Blanton building houses SMU’s admission department. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)
Access is not granted to everyone here on the hilltop. In fact, admission to Southern Methodist University has become more selective than ever before. As more and more students are applying for enrollment at SMU, more students are simultaneously being turned away. The reason for this increased competitiveness goes beyond SMU’s picture perfect campus and the university’s happy students.
In recent years, the quality and quantity of applications received have increased dramatically at SMU. Specifically, this year’s number of prospective students increased 50 percent, and SMU received applications from over 3,000 different high schools nationwide.
Wes Waggoner is the dean of undergraduate admission at SMU, and he believes the most significant change seen by the admission office at SMU has been the increased competiveness and selectivity for enrollment in the first-year class.
“This is not the same SMU where my students were being admitted 10 years ago,” Waggoner said.
The caliber of prospective students granted admission to SMU has changed significantly throughout the years.
Stephanie Dupaul, associate vice president for enrollment management, believes SMU provides unique opportunities for students to craft experiences that are as unique as them. According to Dupaul, SMU’s buzzing entrepreneurial environment allows students to convert their hopes into actions.
“High school counselors tell me that SMU is a hot school,” Dupaul, who previously served as the director of BBA admission and interim dean of undergraduate admission for SMU, said.
Rick Diaz is SMU’s regional director of admission for Southern California. Diaz is responsible for recruiting students, evaluating their applications and presenting real and perceived barriers to the enrollment committee. In order to represent SMU in the best way possible, Diaz believes it is important to find out what the prospective students already know about SMU right off the bat.
“My approach to representing SMU is not about conveying one thing,” Diaz said. “It is not about having a cookie-cutter approach.”
Admissions representatives for SMU all conveyed the importance of helping perspective students determine whether or not the university is a good fit for them. To do this, they assist applicants in discovering different ways in which they could fit in at SMU.
“It’s great to recruit for a school that has so many things to offer to so many students,” Waggoner said.
At SMU, students can choose from seven different degree-granting schools. The university provides students with leadership opportunities and intimate classroom settings. In addition, the city of Dallas also provides a plethora of internship and job options for SMU students. SMU can offer different qualities to different students, which makes the university appealing to a large spectrum of students.
In recent years, technology has revolutionized the college application process, allowing prospective students to apply online while also making it easier to apply to more colleges than necessary.
“They want all information when they want it at the tip of their fingers,” Diaz said. “Admission offices will have to rev up their IT departments to make sure that their websites are easy to navigate.”
Students are applying to greater numbers of schools so they have more choices. However, this has made the applicant pool much more competitive.
SMU now receives over 95 percent of its applications online. Although this has given the university opportunities to make positive changes, it has also made it more difficult to personalize communication with applicants throughout the process.
Diaz foresees a definite power shift in the application process from college admission committees to prospective students.
In the future, the number of high school seniors applying to colleges is expected to decline. This means that admission offices will have to work harder to enroll the same number of students they currently do. The admission office at SMU is up for this challenge.
“This is an exciting time for SMU admissions,” Waggoner said. “There are a lot of exciting ideas we are working on right now-I’m sure you’ll be seeing much of them in the years to come.”
