Dartmouth Admissions Dean announces retirement

Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs • Press Release
Posted 09/25/06 • Roland Adams • (603) 646-3661

Furstenberg to step down next summer

Karl M. Furstenberg, Dartmouth College's dean of admissions and financial aid, has announced that he plans to retire from that position effective July 1, 2007. A search for Furstenberg's successor will begin in the very near future, said Dartmouth Provost Barry Scherr.

Furstenberg came to Dartmouth in 1990 from Wesleyan University, where he had managed admissions for 13 years. He became dean of admissions and financial aid in 1992, and six years later also took on the responsibility of associate provost for planning, overseeing the reestablishment of Dartmouth's Office of Institutional Research and serving as an adviser to the provost.

Dartmouth President James Wright said, "Karl Furstenberg has contributed significantly to the strength of Dartmouth - over the last sixteen years he has overseen the admission of some 18,000 students. Their legacy, inside and outside the classroom, is also his legacy. He has been a good colleague and a good friend and I am deeply grateful to him for all that he has done to enhance our admissions processes and to extend our financial aid support. Even as he and Charlotte look forward to the next phase of their lives with excitement, he can also look back with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I look forward to working with him this year as he even now is recruiting the Class of 2011."

"We are all grateful for Karl's enormous contributions to Dartmouth," Scherr said. "During his time in Hanover we have admitted classes that are ever more talented and diverse, while our financial aid packages are among the very best in the country. On numerous occasions he has represented us well, both on campus and in the wider academic community, on matters concerning the admissions process and financial aid. While we will miss him, we are looking forward to enjoying his lively presence and fine leadership for the remainder of the academic year as we select the class of 2011."

"It has been a great privilege and pleasure to work with President Wright and Provost Scherr, and President Jim Freedman before them, on the important goals of intellectual excellence and diversity in the student body at Dartmouth," Furstenberg said. "With their leadership and the colleagueship of faculty and staff, we have accomplished a great deal in advancing the College's admissions and financial aid goals. I look forward to the coming year and the selection of the Class of 2011."

Some of Furstenberg's contributions include:

• The applicant pool has grown 76 percent, from 7,930 to 13,938.
• Minority representation in the entering class has increased from 18 percent to 31 percent. Male/female representation has changed from 56/44 percent to 48/52 percent.
• Students receiving scholarship assistance has grown from 36 percent of the student body receiving $23 million to 46 percent receiving $44 million.
• Public/private high school representation has changed from 56 percent public/44 percent private to 66 percent public/34 percent private.
• The academic profiles of entering classes have improved dramatically.