This article discusses Sundar Kumarasamy and how he is remaking the rituals of recruitment at the University of Dayton. For years Sundar Kumarasamy walked through the lobby of the University of Dayton's admissions building and daydreamed about changing every inch of the place. Mr. Kumarasamy, the university's vice president for enrollment…

Each year, admissions officers know that a small percentage of admitted applicants who sent deposits will not show up. The phenomenon, known as "summer melt," has many causes. Students might change their plans because they suddenly get off their first-choice college's waiting list--or because they opt to spend a year caring for penguins in…

The recession has turned Americans into numbers addicts. Seemingly endless supplies of statistics--stock prices, retail sales, and the gross domestic product--offer various views about the health of the nation's economy. Higher education has its own economic indicators. Among the most important is "yield," the percentage of admitted students who…

This article reports that with a weak economy and a record number of applications at many campuses, admissions deans have deliberately undershot their targets and lengthened their waiting lists. For months a four-digit number has hovered over Douglas L. Christiansen. It's there when he falls asleep and there when he wakes up. The number is 1,550,…

Admissions deans everywhere shared concerns about recruiting students during a recession as they tried to discern how, or if, the economy would affect demand for their institutions. Amid this uncertainty, colleges used many different strategies. Some recruited more here and less there. Some offered more merit aid, while others scaled back. Some…

Jeff Rickey is a numbers guy. But three years ago, a colleague asked him about something he'd never counted: applicants who came out of nowhere. The question intrigued Mr. Rickey, dean of admissions and financial aid at Earlham College in Indiana. He found that 17 percent of the college's applicants that year had not called, taken a tour, or…

Over the past two decades, college admissions has become a prime-time preoccupation. Most people know at least something about the process, especially if they have a teenager in high school and a college guide on their coffee table. Nonetheless, widespread public misconceptions persist about admissions requirements, the selection process, and the…