Cherokee Students Join Guilford Community with Help from Carson Scholars Program,
fjUILFORDIAN
Admissions Data: A Distortion of the Guilford Profile?
Peter Smith
Managing Editor
Choosing a college meant a lot of hard,
hard work for Guilford freshman Amy
Jorgensen.
Like hundreds of thousands of high
school graduates, Amy studied the statis
tics of many colleges, especially noting
what she regarded as one of the more
important criteria—the number of gradu
ates who either entered graduate school or
the job market immediately after gradu
ation.
"I had read that Guilford had a strong
post-graduate placement rate," said Jor
gensen, 18, from Raleigh. "I also had
lilk-
Charles F. Milner, Chairman of the Guilford College Board of Trustees,
addresses crowd at the formal dedication of the Hege Library/photo by
Charles Almy
Vol. 75, No. 4 Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C. Oct. 1, 1990
heard that Guilford had a strong academic
reputation. These two factors helped my
decision."
Largely on the basis of Guilford Col
lege's own figures, she chose Guilford.
Unfortunately, Guilford's figures were
false.
If a prospective freshman were to exam
ine Guilford's recent graduate placement
statistics in any of the standard college
selection guides, he or she would probably
think Guilford's success was phenomenal.
Consider Lovejoy's 1989 College Guide.
According to its college selection data,
Guilford is competing head to head with
the likes of Duke University, Yale Univer
sity and Swarthmore College as it claims
that 40 percent of its graduates "go on to
higher education immediately upon gradu
ation," and 60 percent "enter the job mar
ket directly upon graduation."
Other guides arc on par with these fig
ures in Lovejoy. The 1989-90 edition of
the College Board's "The College Hand
book" claims that 41 percent of Guilford
graduates continue their education "within
one year of completing their degree re
quirements," and Peterson's 1990 Col
lege Guide claimed that 42 percent of
students completing degrees at Guilford
went "direcUy on to graduate and profes
sional schools for further study."
Many of the guides claim Guilford has
been very successful in post-graduate
placement. Most of the guides state that
Guilford, on average, places 90 percent of
its graduates in either graduate school or a
job immediately upon graduation. All of
the guides have one other thing in com
mon: they are wrong.
In a most recent survey completed in
May 1990 by 90 percent of the Guilford
senior graduating class, only 10.2 percent
of the graduating seniors planned to con
tinue their education in the following year.
Moreover, only 17.2 percent ofthe seniors
had jobs a week before graduation in May.
72.6 percent indicated that they have "no
concrete plans after graduation."
"I had no idea the figures were this low,"
said Jorgensen, after learning Guilford's
1990 post-graduate placement data. "I am
surprised, but my father will be really
surprised."
With such discrepancies between what
Guilford claims to be its post-graduate
placement statistics and what Guilford
learns from surveying its seniors ever year,
some members of the Guilford community
are alarmed.
In fact, the Admissions and Retention
Committee, in response to apparent inac
curacies, has attempted to alert other
members of the community during the past
eight months.
In a memorandum sent Feb. 2, 1990 to
the Enrollment Management Committee,
reference is made to past Guilford surveys
conducted by the Career Development
Office which show "substantially lower
success rates in post-graduate placement
than figures being published by theguides."
The memorandum mentioned three
reasons why such false information could
be damaging to Guilford College: 1) the
published figures misrepresent facts to
students who use such figures in selecting
acollege, (2) students who believe Guil ford
is more successful in such areas may be
disappointed after arriving at Guilford,
dius affecting retention and the quality of
recommendations such students make to
odier prospective students, and (3) such
figures may attract students who don't
"fit" the Guilford campus in terms of
achievement profile.
Following this February memorandum,
it was decided that the college would take
immediate action to rectify die false infor
mation. However, by September of this
year nodiing has been done.
In a follow-up memorandum sent Sept.
21, 1990 from the Admission and Reten
tion Committee to the Dean of Students
Nancy Cable-Wells, reference is again
made to the inaccurate information as well
as to a meeting last February in which it
was decided by members of the College
that guides would be "notified immedi
ately of the inaccuracies and provided
updated information." In an attempt to
verify the corrections, the memorandum
requested that information be provided as
to when and where information was sent to
guides to be corrected.
Finally, having received no response
from the Enrollment Management Com-
see ADMISSIONS on page 4 >-
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