Tired of being the underdog in battling top universities for the best and brightest minority high school students, Naval Academy officials have devised an aggressive recruiting campaign with a $740,000 price tag.
Their goal is to increase African-American and Hispanic enrollment from about 7.5 percent each to 12 percent each in all four classes and to raise the total racial minority enrollment -- including Asian Pacific and Native American -- from 18 percent to percent by 2004.
Denise Wesley, an 18-year-old from Mississippi, is the type of minority candidate the academy wants. She graduated fourth in her high school class, scored 1,270 on the Scholastic Assessment Test and was president of her church youth group.
Other schools wanted her, too. In all, she received $1 million in scholarship offers including the $250,000 academy education. She chose Vanderbilt University in Nashville, which, in addition to offering a free four years, will pay for summer school abroad.
"How can you compete with offers like hers?" asked Lt. James Wyatt, the recruiter who tried to attract Ms. Wesley. "It's tough to distinguish yourself from other schools."
Academy officials hope their plan, awaiting approval by Congress, will give them an edge in attracting minorities. It includes paying for trips to the academy for targeted students, picking up the tab for academy officials to travel to urban areas, advertising and a new director of minority admissions at the academy.
Academy officials also plan to double to six the number of recruiters and to increase minority enrollment from 50 percent to 65 percent at the academy's main feeder school -- the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island.
"A lot of minority candidates are good kids, but they have not had the opportunity to get the education they need to succeed here," said John Renard, dean of academy admissions. "Or they did not start preparing soon enough and they do not have the math and science they need."
The Rhode Island prep school will get $420,000 to hire more faculty members in anticipation of increased minority enrollment.
Academy officials acknowledge that many teens are put off by the six-year commitment graduates must make to the Navy. That time in addition to the four years of schooling can seem like an eternity to teens-agers, such as Ms. Wesley, who had other offers with no strings attached.
comes down to whether you want to serve your country," Mr. Renard said.
