By: Bianca Dinkha
With a new semester underway, Dominican has maintained yet another record-breaking year for freshmen. As of this week, there are a total of 653 first-year students. Given the rising number of freshmen each year, you might be wondering how the university has gained such attention.
Jason Harmon, assistant vice president of undergraduate enrollment, provided insight on Dominican’s years of dedication toward recruitment.
Harmon listed many reasons for Dominican’s success which includes engaging with student athletes, being a close option for commuters, preserving a welcoming and inclusive community, and providing resources like financial aid and scholarships.
“We are doing a lot of things well in terms of wrap around services for students,” said Harmon. “We really want to help them be successful on the academic side and try to provide them with a lot of resources here.”
Dominican is also frequently involved with community-based organizations, specifically with building connections and partnerships. The university focuses on establishing strong relationships with students and welcoming them into the community early on.
“We are starting to reach out to sophomores and juniors at the same time. We are also working with seniors who are looking to apply and go through the admission process,” Harmon said. “We do not really help just one class at a time. We will have freshmen in high school that will engage with our sophomores and juniors and just give them a feel for the college experience and see what they can expect at Dominican.”
In addition to Dominican’s outreach, financial aid plays a large role for admissions.
“We really try to make sure that Dominican is an affordable option,” Harmon explained. “So, when we are looking at tuition, scholarships, and those kinds of things year to year, we’re always looking at not only how does this impact incoming students, but how does it impact current students.”
“Our admissions counselors are the ones that call out those financial aid awards and walk through those with the families,” said Harmon. “Not all schools do that since admissions do admissions and financial aid does financial aid. We work together with financial aid. We know that we have those relationships with the students and their families.”
Dominican’s work to connect with students is an ongoing effort. As the number of freshmen students continue to rise each year, it appears that Dominican will only keep growing from this point forward.
Bdinkha@my.dom.edu
