Readers know that we have felt very good about the status of the admission process and the revisit days. Last Thursday, Charlie Durell predicted that the "yield" from the first round might be as high as 80 new enrollments. For some of us who have dedicated our careers to Proctor, nothing is more important than the quality and composition of the student population.

The kids who apply for admission--in what we call "the first round", (expecting a decision on March 10) --have to declare their intentions by April 10. So this week is the telling moment in the admission year. How did we do, with these kids who are very likely to be attending a prep school next year, and who have probably applied to four, five, or six schools?

In admission parlance, the ratio of students who choose to attend--over the number offered admission--is called the yield. Due to the fact that applicants are applying to many schools, a yield of 45 or 50 percent is a dream outcome.

We knew that revisits went well, but the yield that we are experiencing is unprecedented. Out of 425 applicants, 180 were offered admission. Of those admitted, an amazing 101 have enrolled for next year--an unthinkable yield of 56 percent.

This places the school within easy shot of full enrollment for 2008-09, and this second round is one in which we can "prescreen" applications with great honesty about the competitive field. In other words, the calibre of the student population continues to advance, a process we have witnessed for decades.

At lunch today, a few teachers asked me how it is that we are enrolling boarding students with such strength, when many other schools are looking to foreign markets to achieve budgetary goals, (which is perfectly fine, given the nature of the school.)

I observed that we attract students for a highly diversified set of reasons: academic structures and support systems, a distinctly unique culture and experiential modes of teaching and learning that simply can not be replicated elsewhere.

Having been the admission director from 1982-1992, I can never stop obsessing about the nature of the student population. Happily, our mission does not prescribe academic elitism. This liberates the admissions team to craft a community that is notable for its diversity in many dimensions.