If you hear victorious cries and triumphant cheers echoing from New Garden Hall, it’s likely they’re coming from the Admission Office.

With the help of his team, Director of Admissions Andy Strickler far exceeded any hopes or expectations for enrollment numbers this semester when they successfully brought in 426 new students — over 80 more than last year. Of the new students, a whopping 392 are first-years, with only 24 transfers, five re-admits, and five visiting students from international partner institutions around the world.

The implications of this success are huge.

Given how much Guilford has suffered from the budget crisis over the past two years — with devastating department cuts and faculty downsizing — this leap in enrollment is good news for all.

The team used different innovative strategies to accomplish the feat.

“We’re being a little more open and transparent about our Quaker heritage and the Quaker experience they’re going to have here,” said Strickler. “We’re being a little more assertive talking about the diversity experience … We were a little more transparent with campus visits; last year was the first year in seven or eight years that we offered overnight visits.”

Their emphasis on diversity especially grabbed some students’ attention.

“I wanted to see different types of people,” said sophomore transfer student Jeremy Shaheen. “Each person at this college is different and has something unique about them. That was big for me. I just really like the culture here so far.”

According to Strickler, the search didn’t simply focus on collecting as many students as possible. Instead, it focused on finding students who would positively contribute to the institution while benefitting from it on an individual level.

“We’re Guilford College, with our Guilford sense of place and our Guilford sense of community and the value that we place on diversity,” said Strickler. “We (have to) get the right number of bodies, we need to get the right number of folks coming in the door, but we also need to find people who are going to thrive here. Right now, we feel … we’ve accomplished both.”

Although the Admission Office’s hard work had a lot to do with the success, Strickler emphasized the importance of letting students decide for themselves if Guilford was a good fit.

“We do not sell any student on Guilford College,” Strickler said. “The student essentially convinces themselves that Guilford’s the right place, and we just facilitate the conversation that allows that to happen.”

This was certainly the case for first-year Mo San, who didn’t need much convincing when making her college decision.

“Guilford has a good reputation, and it’s a writing-intensive school and a small, diverse school,” said San. “I’m loving it here so far, and I’m proud that I get to be here.”

The Admission Office’s success is obvious, but Strickler believes that the true test of the success is still unknown.

“One of the real challenges is that people look at enrollment as a number — first day they arrive. And enrollment is a combination of that number first day and (students’) experiences and their growth and their participation in their community over one, two, three years.

“The real test isn’t how many you have walking in first day. The real test is how many do you have walking in first day and how many stay to perpetuate rise and attain degrees.”

While the long-term successes can’t yet be measured, the Admission Office has started the school year off on a good foot, which Strickler attributes to the collaborative elbow grease and brainstorming of many.

“This is a community-won effort,” said Strickler. “The number of people who have invested their time and energy in helping us this year — faculty, staff, other students — has been phenomenal. I have been amazed at the willingness of our human resources here to invest their time and energy to assist us.

“It makes our job easier. But I would never say our job is easy.”

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