Recruiting office aims to draw Chicago teens to Mount Pleasant
Central Michigan University is not a household name for youth in inner city Chicago.
Michael Hull is looking to change that.
Hull, an assistant director of admissions, is the head CMU's new Greater Chicago Outreach center.
"We find a lot of students want to get away from the city to go to college," he said. "Mount Pleasant is the perfect town for college."
The university opened the center in the fall to assist recruiting in Illinois. The center is already seeing results, said Marcie Otteman, senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions and operations.
"We currently have 70 more applications this year from the Chicago area than last year for the entire year of 2008," Otteman said, "We are still accepting applications for our freshman class at this time, so I expect that number will grow."
Otteman said the Chicago area is an area where the number of high school graduates is expected to increase over the next decade.
The university already has a strong alumni base in the state of Illinois, Otteman said, so recruiting has been easier with name recognition in the area.
Hull has spent considerable time recruiting more minority students. He presented at the National Hispanic College Fair and has done college planning presentations for Chicago's inner city youths.
He has also worked with Chicago youth programs that focus on creating first-generation college students.
Otteman said CMU name recognition usually only extends around Michigan and areas with Mid-American Conference schools. The university has a similar office in Detroit, which also covers the Toledo, Ohio area.
Although some may expect that selling Mount Pleasant might be hard in Chicago, Hull said many students want to get away from the big city.
Hull said the announcement of the new medical school has drawn a lot of interest from perspective students.
"The biggest field we get asked about is the health field," he said. "Physical therapy, P.A. program and the new medical school is making CMU a great option."
Business and teaching programs are other fields that tend to be popular, Hull said.
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