For Tufts admissions officer Victoria George, bringing minority students to Tufts is as much a personal mission as it is a professional one.
"Access to higher education for me is very important. Being a first-generation college student was a proud moment ... the schools I had gone to and the opportunities I had, I would not have known about them if I didn't have family that was helping me and backing me up, and a lot of students may not have that kind of support," said George, a recent alumna of Wellesley College.
George's most recent efforts in helping Tufts raise its profile among prospective students of color will culminate this afternoon, when high school students who are "interested in diversity" - almost all of whom are students of color - flock to the hill for the Telescope Program, a semiannual conference that aims to increase the number of students of color who apply to and attend Tufts.
A second conference is held in the spring for admitted students.
This year, Telescope's enrollment has grown from 80 students to close to 300, according to Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin, who said that 274 students had enrolled on Tuesday, with that number still growing.
Approximately 25 of those students are receiving travel grants to make the trip to Tufts free of charge.
Another change is that this year's program will include 15-20 high school guidance counselors hailing from high schools in Massachusetts, New York City, Washington D.C., and St. Louis, according to George.
The adrenaline shot to the program stems at least partially from the drop in African-American enrollment in the Class of '10, which is composed of four percent African-Americans, down from six percent over the last several years.
"I do think part of it is a response," George said.
"I think our efforts were very strong last year as well ... but it takes another [effort] going even beyond 100 percent, and [we're] doing even more than that, which is reflected by the number of students that are coming to this campus."
The program includes the opportunity to attend classes, ask questions of student panels, watch a "supershow" of student dance and a cappella groups, attend a faculty panel, receive information about financial aid and be interviewed by admissions officers and other faculty. The Telescope participants will be hosted by Tufts students.
Between the travel grants - including two buses Tufts has hired to pick students up from NYC and Connecticut - four meals in the dining halls, and hotel rooms and meals for guidance counselors, Coffin estimates the program's total price tag at about $50,000.
Estimates from the admissions office seem to suggest that the program has been successful in showing off the finer sides of Tufts; George said that between 50 and 70 percent of attendees typically apply for admission.
Tufts has practiced some version of outreach to underrepresented students for the past 20 years, George says. But the program was altered and dubbed "Telescope" three years ago due to the U.S. Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger that ruled on affirmative action at Michigan Law School. The decision made it illegal for Tufts to hold a program designed only for minority students, so Tufts made a subtle change, dubbing Telescope "for students interested in multiculturalism."
"The program is also designed for students who are interested in learning more about diversity on campus, so it's not strictly for students of color, exactly," George said, while conceding that "the majority of students who are signed up are students of color."
The increased enrollment is a function of Tufts admissions counselors taking more trips to urban areas, which both George and Coffin have called an increased priority this year.
"When I was doing my travel planning, I went to a number of schools where they have never heard of us, or may have seen our name but thought we were some other school from some other state," George said. "There are some very strong high-powered students of color and students in under-represented areas out there, and that's why we travel for so many weeks, trying to tap into some of these schools."
Admissions counselors also use lists provided by the College Board that show students' ethnicity and their performance on standardized tests as a means to find students to attend the program.
George said that one of the keys to the program's success is that current Tufts students host the potential applicants overnight. As of Monday, 150 students had volunteered their rooms. The admissions office has continued to solicit hosts via e-mail since then, and Telescope students will double up with hosts as necessary.
Freshman Laina Rosebrock is one of the Tufts students who volunteered to host a Telescope participant.
"I thought it would be fun, because when I was applying to Tufts and wanted to go here, I thought the best way to find out if it was really the school was to visit," she said. "I didn't get to do that, because [Tufts] was really far from where I lived, I wanted to help someone else."
George is hoping that students' experiences with their hosts, the panels, and attending classes will open their eyes to Tufts.
"We want students to really get to know about Tufts. Possibly apply, if they're really interested. Apply early, if they're really interested, and then tell their friends. It's great to have the interest generated and have it so high this year, and hopefully it's going to stay like that for years to come."
