Information

The Brandeis University Alumni Admissions Council (AAC) is an international organization of Brandeis graduates who volunteer to represent the University to prospective students, parents, local secondary schools, and the community at large. Organized in 1972 with the support of the University and the Alumni Association, the AAC has grown to nearly 700 members in more than 25 councils around the world. AAC members enthusiastically assist the Brandeis Office of Admissions at each step of the recruitment process.

Councils vary widely in size, from 80 to 100 members with a chairperson and one or more deputy chairpersons, to councils of five or fewer members, and, in some areas, only one member. Regardless of the shape or size of the council, all have a common purpose: to assist the University in identifying talented and promising high school students as prospective Brandeis applicants and to encourage the young men and women best qualified for admission to consider Brandeis as a possible college choice.

By helping to build a bright and diverse student body, AAC members contribute greatly toward helping their alma mater to enhance its precious legacy of excellence in education as a small liberal arts college within a major research university.

Criteria for Membership

The criteria for AAC membership are the ability and willingness to represent Brandeis enthusiastically and honestly to prospective students, guidance counselors, parents, and teachers in the local community; the willingness to take the time to keep informed on the state of the University as well as on higher education in general; the ability to listen to candidates, to report perceptively on their qualities, and to encourage their matriculation if they are admitted; and the willingness to actively seek qualified students, report them to the Office of Admissions and encourage their interest in Brandeis.

Specifically, AAC members accomplish these tasks by visiting high schools, attending college fairs, seeking outstanding students, conducting off-campus interviews, making congratulatory telephone calls to accepted students, and hosting receptions for prospective students.

Identifying Prospective Students

Even if you are not a member of the Alumni Admissions Council, we hope that you will help us to identify strong, talented high school students who would be good prospects for Brandeis.

Prospecting for referrals means identifying suitable students and talking with them about Brandeis or reporting them to the Office of Admissions for follow-up. It is important to Brandeis. By referring outstanding students, you can help to expand the applicant pool so that we are always selecting the best students for each class.

Prospecting is something that each member of the Brandeis community does individually. By serving as the "eyes and ears" for Brandeis Admissions in your community, and actively seeking outstanding students and initiating contact with them, you can help increase Brandeis' visibility.

We encourage you to personally contact these students. You may invite them to talk with you about Brandeis, suggest that they visit the campus, or introduce them to current students or other alumni. Personal contact can make a difference in any encounter.

When you identify a prospective student, please send us some information about the student. We will contact the student with a letter of introduction and information about Brandeis, and place that student on our mailing list for further contact.

Some ways to identify prospective students:

• Regularly check your local daily or community newspaper and other media for reports on students who are engaged in research projects, notable community service activities, or other activities that demonstrate initiative and leadership qualities.
• The education and the sports sections devoted to high school athletics often feature profiles of accomplished students.
• Watch for the annual listing of semifinalists from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation in your local newspaper.
• Read high school newspapers or journals, if you have access to them, to identify the active, involved students (either as subjects or authors of articles).
• Watch community service programs on your local cable television station for leads on students.
• Ask family members, friends, business associates, and neighbors about the high school students they know and their plans for college.
• Visit or talk with people who work either professionally or voluntarily at local community centers, churches, temples, high schools, or other programs that focus on young people in high school.
• Talk with teachers at your local high schools.
• Talk with community and religious leaders.
• If you have children in high school, we are absolutely interested in them!
• Encourage other Brandeis alumni with children in high school to consider Brandeis.
• Obtain referrals from other Brandeis alumni.
• Encourage other Brandeis graduates to prospect for referrals.
• In your conversations with high school guidance counselors, ask them about other students who should know about Brandeis.

There are many more ways to identify outstanding students. Once you start you will be surprised at how easy it is to come up with prospects.

Contact

Office of Admissions,
Mailstop 003,
Brandeis University
P.O. Box 549110
Waltham, MA 02454-9110

Telephone: 781-736-3500, or 800-622-0622
Fax: 781-736-3536