{"id":449442,"date":"2020-08-24T11:40:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T15:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=449442"},"modified":"2022-11-30T14:12:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T19:12:40","slug":"class-of-2024-449442","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/class-of-2024-449442\/","title":{"rendered":"The Class of 2024 settles in"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 75%; font-size: 150%; font-face: arial; font-weight: bold; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 0.5em;\">With no campus tours or in-person meetings, putting the Class of 2024 together was a community effort.<\/div>\n<div class=\"side-right\">\n<h3><strong>By the Numbers<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>1,250<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>students in the College<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>from <strong>46 states<\/strong> and <strong>40 other nations<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>20<\/strong><strong> percent<\/strong> are the first in their family to attend college<\/li>\n<li><strong>22<\/strong><strong> percent<\/strong> are international students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>136<\/strong>\u00a0students in the Eastman School of Music<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>from<strong> 28 states <\/strong>and<strong> 4 other countries<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>11 percent<\/strong> are the first in their family to attend college<\/li>\n<li><strong>18 percent<\/strong> are international students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>When COVID-19 forced the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/\">University of Rochester<\/a> to shift to distance learning in March, thousands of students, staff, and faculty headed home.<\/p>\n<p>The admissions staffs of the College and and the Eastman School of Music did, too, but with daunting challenges: to stay connected with students who had been admitted to the incoming Class of 2024 while finalizing that class without campus tours or in-person discussions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was the week we were set to mail our regular decision admission letters,\u201d says Jason Nevinger, director of admissions for the College. \u201cYou want the admitted students to experience in person the very best Rochester offers\u2014its people, strong sense of community, and the beautiful campus that we call home. I remember thinking, \u2018How can we do that when we can\u2019t even shake a hand?\u2019\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<h4><b>A University-wide effort<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>Nevinger and Samantha Veeder, director of financial aid for the College, served as co-interim deans of admissions until Robert Alexander joined the University on June 1. Alexander previously served as vice president for enrollment and communications at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>When the pandemic closed the University\u2019s campuses, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid had about 500 students who had enrolled and submitted their deposits out of what would become a class of more than 1,250.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe knew this had to be a University-wide effort, and it truly was,\u201d Nevinger says. \u201cOur yield season included senior administration, students, faculty, staff, and alumni volunteers from across the world on a scale I haven\u2019t seen in my time at Rochester. More calls were made, emails and texts sent, and more student information sessions and webinars presented than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The result is a diverse first-year class from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 40 other countries.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur incoming students come from as close as East High School and McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, and as far as Paraguay and Pakistan,\u201d Alexander says. \u201cMany students and parents have made enormous sacrifices to earn their opportunity for this world-class education. They are high-achieving people, and people of high integrity. Despite, or perhaps because of the challenges they\u2019ve already faced, they\u2019re intent on tackling the greatest challenges of today and tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esm.rochester.edu\/\">Eastman School of Music<\/a> faced a similar situation in March, trying to finalize its new class during a global pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce we went to working remotely, we worked closely with faculty to invite admitted applicants to observe virtual lessons and classes,\u201d says Matthew Ardizzone, Eastman\u2019s dean of admissions and enrollment management. \u201cOnce we had secured our class in early May, we spent the next couple of months continuing conversations with admitted students and families about our fall plan, with some students reconsidering their enrollment plans. It felt like a second wave of the enrollment yield effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eastman\u2019s Class of 2024 includes 136 students from 28 states and four other countries.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander says Nevinger and Veeder showed \u201ctrue leadership\u201d in crafting and adapting every element of Rochester\u2019s enrollment strategy. \u201cI commend the way they engaged the admissions, financial aid, and enrollment teams and coordinated the efforts of faculty, staff, students, and alumni to enroll this class,\u201d he says. \u201cOur collective community worked relentlessly throughout the spring and summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4><b>An expanded role for virtual admissions?<\/b><\/h4>\n<p>Every online tool available was used to finalize the incoming class, including social media&#8211;which allowed the admissions staff, current students, parents, and alumni to amplify messaging across a virtual landscape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had alumni volunteers hosting Zoom sessions, faculty and staff across the University providing information sessions and meet and greets,\u201d Nevinger says. \u201cIt truly was a collective community effort to enroll this class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nevinger and Veeder spoke regularly via Zoom and shared weekly updates with the University\u2019s leadership team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout the recruitment cycle, we were prepared to react immediately to admissions and financial aid decisions and ensure that we were progressing toward enrollment targets,\u201d Veeder says.<\/p>\n<p>The results were encouraging. The period between May 1 and August 15 saw 12 percent more students engaging with admissions compared to on-campus visitors last year during the same time frame.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoving virtually has afforded us the opportunity to think creatively about engaging with our virtual visitors, including hosting evening programming and expanding our session topics to include City of Rochester virtual tours and mock admissions workshops (in which admissions staff help students and parents better understand how applications are reviewed and decisions are made),\u201d Nevinger says.<\/p>\n<p>The Class of 2024 begins classes August 26, but work on selecting the next class has already started. Even though its office remains closed to visitors, the admissions staff continues to engage with prospective students, families, and school counselors. Recruitment initiatives such as admissions interviews, information sessions, and workshops are available daily, hosted by current students, alumni volunteers, and staff from across the campus. Virtual high school visits and <a href=\"https:\/\/enrollment.rochester.edu\/research-rochester\/\">Research Rochester open houses<\/a> will be hosted this fall, and prospective students can take a <a href=\"https:\/\/enrollment.rochester.edu\/on-campus-visits\/%22%20%5Cl%20%22virtual-campus-tour\">virtual campus tour<\/a>, in which current undergraduates pop up and guide the students during a building-by-building online tour of campus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen incredible increases in the numbers of prospective students who\u2019ve participated in these virtual opportunities,\u201d Alexander says. \u201cFor today\u2019s high school students, it seems many are equally comfortable asking questions and engaging in the virtual information than they might have been sitting in Wallis Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Class of 2024 includes more than 1,250 students in the College and 134 students in the Eastman School of Music. Forty other nations are represented. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":449622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[21242,38462,3286,29502,35332],"class_list":["post-449442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-admissions","tag-class-of-2024","tag-eastman-school-of-music","tag-featured-post-side","tag-the-college"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Class of 2024 settles in<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Rochester&#039;s Class of 2024 includes more than 1250 students in the College and 134 students in the Eastman School of Music.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/class-of-2024-449442\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Class of 2024 settles in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Rochester&#039;s Class of 2024 includes more than 1250 students in the College and 134 students in the Eastman School of Music.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/class-of-2024-449442\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-24T15:40:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-30T19:12:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fea-class-of-2024.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Mandelaro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Mandelaro\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/class-of-2024-449442\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/class-of-2024-449442\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim Mandelaro\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/35537746af700f24d7e52e350d95b124\"},\"headline\":\"The Class of 2024 settles in\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-24T15:40:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-30T19:12:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/class-of-2024-449442\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":955,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/class-of-2024-449442\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/fea-class-of-2024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"admissions\",\"Class of 2024\",\"Eastman School of Music\",\"featured-post-side\",\"the college\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Campus &amp; 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