Karen Richardson to lead new Office of Graduate Admissions

The Office of Graduate Admissions, formerly a part of the Office of Graduate Studies, was officially launched under the initiative of Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin on July 1, and will be run by the new Director of Graduate Admissions Karen Richardson.

The Office of Graduate Admissions will support the admissions process for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the graduate programs in the School of Engineering. All other Tufts graduate schools -- The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the School of Medicine, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences -- will maintain their own independent admissions offices, according to Coffin.

Coffin explained the graduate school admissions process differs from the undergraduate process in that applications are reviewed by faculty in the respective departments and programs rather than by admissions officers. The new Office of Graduate Admissions will manage the administrative side of the application process, including customer service and outreach. Applications, however, will still be reviewed by individual departments, he explained.

“Unlike undergraduate admissions, the selection of graduate students is managed by the faculty in the various departments and programs, but the deans were interested in having a graduate admissions staff that could assist the faculty in recruitment efforts and in application processing,” Coffin told the Daily in an email. “The selection of graduate students in [the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering] will continue to be done by the faculty.”

Richardson explained that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will be a useful resource in developing the Office of Graduate Admissions, which seeks to apply some of the same strategies that have proved successful in undergraduate admissions.

“We want to take what we have been learning over the past couple years around recruitment and apply that to graduate school admissions, about how to increase the size of applicant pool, diversify the applicant pool -- not just racially but geographically as well, and also in terms of caliber of the applicant,” Richardson said.

Some of the immediate goals of the Office of Graduate Admissions are to simplify the application process and serve as an accessible resource for applicants, as well as to streamline the process between departments, Richardson explained.

“We have adopted an online application system, as has the undergraduate office, that has a more streamlined and user-friendly interface,” Richardson said. “We have a new staff that will be very accessible to applicants and put a customer friendly face on the process.”

According to Richardson, the office has its own staff including Associate Director Roxana Woudstra (LA ’04, G ’14) and Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Coordinator Anna Saropoulos.

Coffin explained that the Office of Graduate Admissions hopes to diversify and grow the applicant pool through its more coordinated recruitment effort.

“The two schools will benefit from a coordinated, strategic recruitment effort for prospective students, as well as a more streamlined application process,” Coffin said. “Graduate admission officers are already traveling around the country this fall, meeting prospective applicants and encouraging them to consider Tufts for their masters and doctoral work.”

Richardson was appointed director due to her exceptional background in admissions, according to Coffin. She previously worked in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions as associate director of Undergraduate Admissions and director of Diversity Recruitment and served previously as an admissions officer at Princeton University.