Each year, the admission cycle continues to add new features to improve the attractiveness of the school. This year in particular, the admissions team has been increasingly reaching out to different school districts our school hasn’t affected, as well as adding more new additions and revamping the touring process.
One way they’ve improved the system a lot was the refinement of the visits after they were stopped during covid. They’ve done this by shortening the length of tours to still include the majority of the day without sacrificing traffic problems early in the morning.
Besides just giving students tours, there is a new emphasis on giving their family member tours as well.
“This is the first year we really scheduled small group campus tours for families. we want to offer as many possibilities for a family to get on campus and experience our school firsthand.” Admission Officer Korey Mack ‘ 00 said, “I think we’re continually dedicated to opening up opportunities for families to get on campus and see what it is that we do in person.”
These new additions have expanded St. Marks’ influence on the Dallas Metroplex.
“The level of choice within the traditional Independent School District is starting to show itself in the list of schools that have which boys apply to our school,” Mack said.
This is an especially good sign, as reaching out to farther school districts can be a challenge for private schools.
“We’re starting to build higher levels of interest from magnet schools within the Independent School District,” Mack said.
Admitting students from these magnet schools doesn’t just help to increase the diversity of the student body, it also allows for St. Mark’s to gain more traction around where these students live.
“It helps a lot when you get a couple of students from that school then report back to their neighborhood about the type of experiences that they’re having at St. Mark’s, which generates interest,” Mack said, “The more familiar our counselors are with colleges, the more likely we are to get boys to apply to those colleges,” Mack said. “The same can be said about these different local schools and our efforts to strengthen relationships witht heir counselors.”
Although the influx of diverse applicants is great, each year, there are still applicants that get an offer but choose not to take it.
“When a student declines an offer, we definitely reflect and try to think of ways in which we could have been more attractive,” Mack said.
Applicants declining their offer to St. Mark’s tell the admissions office that they still have work to do, and they continue to work hard to better the admissions process.
“We do a good job of constantly discussing ways that we can improve how we present the school,” Mack said. “As an office, we continue to grow.”
