 |
 |
|
Jesse Foppert, starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, is one name that helped make prospective students familiar with USF.
|
USF’s Qualities Popular With Potential Students
USF’s admission staff relied on three factors this year to attract potential students: its Jesuit heritage, San Francisco, and Jesse Foppert.
The first two are tried-and-true recruitment strategies. “You get people who like Jesuit values,” said Mike Hughes, senior associate director of admissions. “And a lot want to move to the city of San Francisco.”
Then there are the newer perspectives of USF that are making its name familiar in many fields: social justice education, strong liberal arts curriculum, and a baseball team that helped prepare a San Francisco Giants pitcher.
“For the first time in years, I heard at a recruitment fair one high school senior say to his friend ‘Hey, USF, they have a really good baseball team,’” Hughes said. “Jesse Foppert is giving us a lot of publicity.”
Foppert, who was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2001 while a junior at USF, is now one of the team’s starting pitchers. He is one of two USF baseball players who were drafted by major league teams in 2001.
But sports are not the predominant attraction. Many prospective students and their parents like the combination of Jesuit values and liberal arts, Hughes said. “I just have to say the name of the Performing Arts and Social Justice major and then I can say ‘this is a quintessential USF program.’”
At the graduate level, USF distinguishes itself with unique programs like Environmental Management, Sport Management, and International and Development Economics, said Mark Landerghini, director of graduate program outreach for the College of Arts and Sciences. Add to that small class sizes, classes taught by professors or professionals rather than teaching assistants, and programs guaranteed to finish on time, and you have a package many graduate students like, Landerghini said.
“Graduate students know what they want,” Landerghini said. “They don’t need a menu of options. They ask about financial assistance, areas of research, and faculty expertise. And, of course, the often mentioned city of San Francisco as a wonderful place to study.”
Hughes said the admissions office also has made greater efforts to expand the university’s visibility outside California and its neighboring states. Recruiters travel by bus with other Jesuit schools on regional tours of the east coast. “After doing it for several years, you see the effects,” Hughes said. Recruitment also goes on earlier now. Middle school students take tours of the campus while recruiters try to reach out to students in their sophomore as well as the traditional junior year of high school to help develop interest and familiarity with the university.
|
