College Admission Help

College Recruiting: Should Yale Target Locals For College Admissions


For the past 25 years, the average number of freshmen in each Yale class from New Haven could be counted on two hands. Elm City residents currently comprise less than 1 percent of Yale College’s student population. And only a portion of those students attended one of the city’s public schools.
While the Yale admissions office offers year-round tours and interviews, it does not have exclusive recruiting initiatives to target students from New Haven public schools.
Six guidance counselors from New Haven public schools said in interviews that Yale should pro-actively reach out to local public school students. But Dean of Admissions Jeff Brenzel said Yale’s existing programs — such as information sessions held at local schools upon request and an annual conference to which public school students are invited — demonstrate the extent to which his office already offers support.
“With Yale being so accessible and so close to these schools, we feel that the hospitality that we afford and the outreach that we do [is] substantial,” Brenzel said in an interview.
Still, none of these programs are unique to New Haven public schools. Local guidance counselors said their time is too scarce to help every rising senior who wants to apply to the University, and they are not alone in thinking that Yale should be more aggressive in its assistance.
“You’ve got to help [New Haven public school] kids once they’re in high school,” said Pedro Noguera, a professor at New York University and one of the nation’s leading scholars on urban education. “Affluent kids, they’ve got tutors, they’ve got huge advantages — you have to try to level the playing field to give less-affluent kids the opportunity.”
It is about fostering good will with the community, Noguera said, and about making Yale a resource for New Haven.


College Recruiting: Should Yale Target Locals For College Admissions