Sigma Chi Wins First Race for Referrals

Grant Tharp coordinated the first annual

The Wabash College Admissions Office knows it takes all hands to recruit each year's freshman class. For the last several years, the office has challenged alumni to refer talented prospective students to the College, and the results have been outstanding — nearly one in two students referred by alumni matriculate.

This year the Admissions team decided to issue a similar challenge to current Wabash students, and called the living unit competition the "Race for Referrals."

Like the alumni referral initiative, the results have been outstanding, according to organizer Grant Tharp, an assistant director of admissions at the College.

"It only makes sense to get referrals from our students who know young men in their old high schools with the same qualifications as our students", says Tharp. "These are the guys we are looking for."

Tharp says he hopes the "Race for Referrals" student competition will become part of the College's culture.

"We developed a competition between all of the living units with two categories for winners — percentage of participation and total number of referrals," explains Tharp. "We felt it was important to make it fair for the smaller living units and for the team who went all out for the total number. The competition started in September and the final date to turn in referrals was January 17th."

The winner for the first "Race for Referrals" is Sigma Chi. The brothers in Sigma Chi won in both catagories with a 43.85% of participation and 126 total prospective student referrals.

"The key to their success was the way they utilized the freshmen in their house," says Tharp.

Second place went to Delta Tau Delta with a 26% referral rate and 77 total referrals. Kappa Sigma finished third with 16% and 41 total referrals.

The Sigma Chis will receive a $500 prize from the Admissions Office for their commitment to the program.

"As a campus we hit 341 total referrals which is up from 92 total student referrals from last year," adds Tharp.

The office already is bouncing around ideas for next year that will allow students to earn points for their team from the origination of a referral to the application process and all the way through to when a prospect sends in his deposit.

"I would love to see a competition between the student body and our alumni in the future," says Tharp. "We still have some work to do on the student body side before we are ready for that, but it was a good first year."