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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


The second step in the completion continuum is “Start.”  As I discussed in the recent fall Message to the College Community, we’ve been looking at the data around how we design the Start of the academic year to assure that we’re putting in place the systems, processes, and deadlines necessary to promote student success.   This data review prompted our registration deadline, and it is leading us to implement an application deadline beginning in Spring 2012.  When we talk about “evidence-based practice” and describe ourselves as a “learning college,” these principles need to extend well beyond the walls of any one classroom and into the activities of the college as a whole.  How can we, collectively, learn from the stories embedded in our data and act upon the evidence before us?

Most of our students Start their process by simply indicating to us that they’re interested in MCC.  A quick look at real numbers from this past fall gives an idea of how complex the path from “Hey, I’m interested in MCC” to (borrowing an image from my youth) “Passing Go and paying your tuition” really is.  Let’s follow our Fall 2011 cohort to trace the story of this journey.  At each step in the process where there’s an opportunity for the college to intervene--to reach out to help students understand what it will take to get to Start and what we can do to assist--I’ve put an asterisk.  In Fall 2011 …

16,683 prospective students applied; of these, just 230 were not accepted (1.4%) and an even smaller number applied as non-matriculating students (64 or .4%).*

4,222 students had no decision made on their application.  For 80%, their applications are still marked “pending.” *

So, that leaves 12,167 accepted students.  That’s still a large number, 73% of those who applied, but it’s not equitably distributed: 80% of non-minority students get to Start as compared to 63% of minority students.*  Similar disparities exist between RCSD students (80%) and non-RCSD students (ranging from 85% for home school to 94% for private schools).*  Age also plays a role: recent HS grads get to Start 92% of the time; those over 30 get there about 69% of the time.*

But, we know that 12,167 students didn’t enroll this past fall.  That number is much lower: 6,732.*  In reality, these two numbers will never be equal, so that’s not a big surprise.  Students have many options for pursuing their educations, and they usually apply to and are accepted by multiple colleges.  So, it would not be realistic to say that MCC should have a goal of enrolling every accepted student.  However, a reasonable institutional goal might be for the final enrollment profile to map to the acceptance profile.  In other words, do the demographics of these two groups look the same?

Then, let’s ask that question.  What about this population?  How does it compare to the accepted students?  Well, 67% of the accepted non-minority students enrolled but only 33% of their minority peers did.*  Within the public secondary education arena, only 17% of RCSD acceptances made it past the starting line as compared to 38% of their Monroe County peers.*  And, again, age proves important.  More than half of all accepted students under 20 enrolled, only 14% of those over 30 did.*

Thus far, I’ve got nine asterisks, meaning nine points of possible intervention already, and I’ve not even covered all the demographic variables.  Plus, all of these asterisks come well before these enrolled applicants seek financial aid, find advisement, select their schedules and register, pay for their classes … before they attend the first day of classes and hit the varied successes and struggles of their first few days, weeks, term!  Whew!  It’s an avalanche of possible momentum points, points at which students can either move forward, stand still, or worst of all, move backward.

What does this mean?  It means that getting to and through Start is not easy.  It involves many hard-working MCC staff and faculty, a slew of moving pieces, and—judging from this one fall snapshot—it also means we likely need to think through new ways of reaching out from the college to help students find their way to MCC to even get to Start. 

We all know the powerful experiences that await them here: truly life changing opportunities for academic success and personal growth that set our students up for better futures.  It’s how we’ve been fulfilling our community’s promise for the past 50 years.  But, none of this can happen if they don’t ever pass Go.  How can we improve their odds?  Share your ideas
in my blog.

Anne Kress
President's Office
11/02/2011