College To Up Recruiting in U.K. Schools

In its continued efforts to break through socioeconomic barriers in search of the world’s best students, Harvard is currently working to increase recruitment of students from government-run schools in the United Kingdom, according to the Undergraduate Admissions Office.

Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis ’70-’73 said that there is a discrepancy between the number of students applying in the United Kingdom from private institutions versus public schools, called state schools, and that the majority of applicants from the United Kingdom were from private schools.

With the number of applications from the United Kingdom overall rising substantially over the past few decades, according to McGrath Lewis, Harvard is also seeking to ensure “access to the strongest candidates.” Alumni abroad, McGrath Lewis said, are the Admissions Office’s strongest resources for recruiting these students in the United Kingdom.

Current recruiting practices in the United Kingdom differ markedly from those domestically, McGrath Lewis said. The Admissions Office relies mostly on the alumni network for student recruitment rather than identifying and contacting individual students based on standardized test scores as in the United States.

Alumni in the United Kingdom are encouraged to monitor students who, for example, win science fairs or piano competitions, in an effort to locate promising applicants, McGrath Lewis said.

She added that the University intends to increase awareness and accessibility in state schools of resources about Harvard’s international admission and financial aid policies.

The admissions department is constantly working on “identifying, recruiting, and enrolling the best students” from all parts of the globe, McGrath Lewis said.

Due to office reorganization, McGrath Lewis said that she didn’t have the exact number of applications or matriculation of students from the United Kingdom.

Henry J. Dawkins ’10, who attended an independent English secondary school that is privately run, said that the only people who tended to apply to U.S. schools were those who had a direct connection to the United States.

“Without backing from high schools, you wouldn’t think about it or have the support to do it,” Dawkins said about why students from state schools in the United Kingdom are less likely to apply to U.S. universities.

Not all students from state schools rely on the University’s recruiting efforts.

Ronan M. Devlin ’10, who went to a state school in Ireland, said that his decision to apply to Harvard was motivated neither by his school nor by recruiting efforts from Harvard but instead by the suggestion of his mother.

But, Devlin added, no one else from his class applied to a school in the United States.