Baylor’s New Engineering Admissions Plan- Phase I

Baylor University is best known for academic programs in medicine, liberal arts, business, law, and religion. Baylor’s School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) is a relatively young and small component of the university, although ECS is Baylor’s highest U.S. News and World Report ranked school or college. Baylor’s undergraduate recruitment and admissions process is centralized, and besides auditions required for performing arts programs, academic entrance requirements are the same for each of the academic units. ECS partners proactively with the offices associated with student identification and recruitment with a strong focus on attracting and encouraging prospective students who will raise the ECS student academic profile. Although admission to Baylor is classified as “more” selective, some students positioned on the lower range of the spectrum are not strong candidates to persist in an engineering or computer science curriculum. An effort was initiated for fall 2007 to better guide and serve students identified as academically at-risk, even before they enrolled. The process included phone conversations and interviews to better assess their preparation, motivation, and understanding of ECS. Although all of the accepted at-risk students were asked and encouraged to participate in the program, only a small percentage took advantage. Of those who did participate, all were enthusiastic and confident about their academic preparation and abilities. The outcome of this endeavor was that all of the identified students who were interviewed and enrolled at Baylor did so with an ECS major, although this sometimes was not the recommendation of the counselor. This feedback is being used to restructure and improve this intervention initiative, with the revised program design containing academic- and preparatory-skills components available during the summer and in advance of normal fall enrollment.