Founded in 1855, Butler University is an independent, co-ed liberal arts college located five miles from downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Its 290 acre campus is widely cited as one of the most beautiful in the Midwest.
Here is a summer 2010 interview with Kristen Raves, a spokeswoman for the admissions office.
What do you consider the most important part of the application process?
At Butler, every part is important. As cliché as that might sound, it is true. We really value our prospective and current students. We make sure that we are communicating with them through every step of the process.
For students it is important to make sure they do the following before applying and/or during the application process. This includes: doing their research about the university and financial aid, visiting campus, speaking with an admission counselor, getting recommendations from teachers/coaches/etc., continuing to take challenging course loads, keeping their grades up, taking or retaking the SAT/ACT and, of course, turning in the application and additional items that go along with it.
Here’s a small sampling of some of the things we do to communicate with our students throughout this process:
- We communicate with our students through print pieces, email and social media. We make it relevant, fun and current. We try to be authentic with our prospective students so they can see if Butler really is a good fit for them.
- This past fall we launched a video contest called “Butler’s Best Cribs” that encouraged students to film their living space, then invited people (including prospective students) to vote for their favorites. We wanted people to see what the residence halls really look like rather than just some staged room. People must have appreciated the authenticity of the videos because there were more than 150,000 votes cast.
- We constantly update our social media pages and website. This generation always wants to see something new. They don’t want to come back to the website or Facebook page and see that it hasn’t changed in a week. That’s why we include photos, video and more on all of our sites.
- This year we hosted more yield events than in the past and this effort will continue throughout the summer. Counselors will travel to different areas of the country to meet with incoming freshmen and their parents. For us, recruiting stops the day after the student can withdraw from classes in the fall. We recruit all through summer and into the first few weeks of class.
- We also have a communication flow of emails to send students throughout their application process. This can be everything from sending invites to events, letting them know that certain parts of their application are missing and even yield emails to keep them interested in Butler.
Has your school seen a change (increase or decrease) in application volume?
Over the past few years we have seen a steady increase in applications. This year we received over 6,700 applications which was 500 more than the previous year.
Describe the ideal candidate for your school.
*Based off of our 2009 Freshmen Class Profile (Middle 50%)
GPA (on a 4.0 scale): 3.47 – 4.0
SAT: critical reading 520-630; math 540-650; writing 520-620
ACT: 25-30
50% in the top 10% of their graduating class
The minimum requirements for admission consideration at Butler are:
- English – 4 years
- Mathematics – 3 years
- Laboratory Science – 3 years
- Social Studies/History – 2 years
- Foreign Language – 2 years of the same language
Intended science, pharmacy, computer science, engineering or mathematics majors should have additional units in science and math.