Recruiters Come Calling For Talented Minorities

Like Chin and 96 percent of the students at Flowers, all of these high achievers are black, and they have discovered that they are popular on the college circuit. (The only gripe some have is that their parents make too much money for them to be eligible for need-based financial aid.)

"You can't say enough good things about diversity," said Tracy Schario, a spokeswoman for George Washington. "For minority students who are bright, there's a tremendous amount of competition" among college recruiters.

George Washington has focused its attempts to recruit minority students locally. It offers a full scholarship to top graduates of public schools in the District, the majority of whom are black. Some schools target black students specifically for aid, offering scholarships named after such black luminaries as Frederick Douglass and Benjamin Banneker. Other schools show a welcoming face: Vanderbilt took students to one of its famed fraternity step shows. The University of Pennsylvania sent a bus to Union Station to pick up minority students for an all-expenses-paid campus visit.

Jennifer Desjarlais, the dean of admissions at Wellesley, said that the school's "secret weapon" for recruiting students is local graduates. Its Washington-based club also reaches out to Prince George's and Northern Virginia, and the college is "increasing efforts by alumnae of color to get involved in our recruiting," Desjarlais said. Recruiters also look at strong schools that previously have not sent students to Wellesley.

"How excited we were to have a candidate from C.H. Flowers," Desjarlais exclaimed.

She was talking about Boafoa Offei-Darko, one of Chin's classmates, who will be attending Wellesley in the fall.

"She was someone who had been involved in the process very early," Desjarlais said. "She had attended a college fair and was attended by one of our college fair volunteers." Later, Offei-Darko visited the Wellesley campus on a day specially for minority students, which included introductions to current students of color in addition to the orientation program offered all students.

Offei-Darko, an aspiring journalist, said she got distinctly different treatment at the University of Chicago, her first choice.

"Chicago didn't seem to care," she said. "It was like, 'Oh, you're here, just do the work.' "

Offei-Darko said she noticed the added attention from Wellesley, though she had mixed feelings about it.

"Part of me feels like, if I can get into college with less credentials, how would I do . . . versus people who got in not based on race?" she said. But of Wellesley, she said: "I really did like it. I was happy they acknowledged the fact that the minority experience is different."

In the end, she chose Wellesley, but her decision did not come down to race or diversity. It came down to money: Wellesley's financial aid package covered half her tuition. That was good enough for Desjarlais.

"She's a remarkable young woman, and we're delighted she's interested in coming here," Desjarlais said. "And we hope she's going to pave the way for other students."