The past several years have seen a dramatic rise in Baruch's admissions standards, the result of a concerted effort on the part of school administrators. According to Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Jim Murphy, it all began in 1996, when the average SAT score for incoming freshmen was 960. "At the time President (now CUNY Chancellor) Matthew Goldstein decided that we needed to increase standards without hurting the ethnicity of the College, so we looked at a number of factors," says Murphy. One determination was that SATs and GPAs were less indicative of how a student would succeed in college than the type of courses they'd taken in high school.

Baruch's first requirement was for all incoming students to have completed a certain number of English and math courses. When the College's ethnicity was unaffected over the next two years, the administration looked into increasing SAT scores. In 1998, in conjunction with the raising of high school GPA requirements (up to 80 from 78 initially; it's now 82); it became obligatory for incoming students to score at least 900 on the SAT (with an 87 average) or 950 (with an 85). During this period freshman enrollment fell to a low of 980, down from 1450 several years earlier. However, total enrollment remained fairly stable as increasing numbers of transfer students chose Baruch.

Today these efforts have produced an extraordinary increase in student quality and accomplishment: Average SAT scores are now nearly 1100 and the average GPA is up from 83 to 87. "The surprising factor," says Murphy, "was that as soon as we began telling applicants they couldn't enroll, more wanted to come. We'd hoped to be back up to 1450 or 1500 incoming freshmen by 2005, but in 2001 we suddenly found ourselves with 1700." The bar has also been raised for transfer students, who once needed a 2.0 GPA to enroll at Baruch; currently, they need a 2.5 with an associate's degree from a community college; or a 3.3 without having graduated.

Equally dramatic changes have been undertaken within the Zicklin School, much of it spearheaded by Acting Assistant Dean Phyllis Zadra. After attending an AACSB (Association for Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business) conference in Fall 2000, she came away with a few ideas that addressed ongoing problems such as overcrowded classes and students who frequently repeated courses and/or dropped out. "The University of Florida Business School had a system they called tracking, really a lockstep program of pre-business courses," she recalls, "I thought there should be a way for us to do something similar." Previously, Zicklin junior status requirements included "Eleven courses that didn't seem to be organized in any pedagogically appropriate way... and just passing was enough."

She and her colleagues decided that instead of admitting freshmen to Zicklin right off the bat, it would be better to bring them into Baruch College and initiate a pre-business core requirement. "They'd know up front that if they were opting to be business students, then they had to direct their energies." Says Zadra. (Both the Weissman School and the School of Public Affairs now have similar enrollment processes.) As of fall 2001, incoming students were required to complete (with a 2.25 GPA) eight specific classes in order to be admitted to Zicklin and proceed to upper division courses. In addition, says Zadra, "We took the responsibility to increase the support of these eight classes, some of which are pretty tough. The pre-business core came with very serious attempts to improve undergraduate teaching." As detailed in the Fall 2002 issue of Zicklin Magazine, introductory courses have been completely revamped to take advantage of Baruch's state-of-the-art online learning environment. Additionally, all large economics lecture courses now include an additional hour of review taught by a teaching assistant.

According to Zadra, it's all working. As of mid-summer, Zicklin had accepted more than 600 of the students who enrolled under the new regime, and at least another 100 will be accepted by fall. "This is in excess of the number of students that would have attained junior status under the old system," she notes. "These students are smarter, more prepared; they come to the upper division courses with better skills and more information. It's a win-win situation."

The new system is just now being applied to transfer students, most of whom come from community colleges. Instituting the pre-business core at that level is more difficult since not all of the feeder schools offer the required courses. Zicklin is providing a Web site specifically for potential transfer students, offering information about how they may satisfy the requirement. The School is also working hard to smooth the transition of transfer students by giving not only guidance, but access to the courses needed to complete preparation for entrance into Zicklin as a business major.

Overall, the new standards are having a very positive impact. "The students that are coming in are staying, our retention rate is high; our graduation rate is going up," says Murphy. Perhaps most telling is the fact that this year, Baruch was exceeded by Hunter College in terms of number of applications. Murphy explains: "The reason why, quite frankly, is that our standards are so high that guidance counselors are starting to steer some students to other schools."

Zicklin Dean John Elliott, who is just finishing his first year at Baruch, is a strong supporter of these initiatives: "The students at the Zicklin School deserve an excellent education. We are now more able to teach to a uniformly well-prepared classroom. Students that I talk with are pleased that their classmates are all prepared to help the class move forward. In the past some students felt some of their classmates were limiting the progress of the class. The new standards are a big move forward." It's another step in the ongoing evolution of Baruch into a topnotch institution. —MZ