An Admission of Passion

For 20 years, Jess Lord has worked to recruit, admit, and enroll Haverfordians. Today, as vice president and dean of admission and financial aid, he manages all aspects of student admission and aid, including recruitment, admission, and enrollment. Lord worked at other colleges before 2005, including Pomona and his alma mater Brown University, but it wasn’t until he took up his role at Haverford that his work dovetailed with his life as a Quaker. He and his entire team play an enormous role in Haverford being able to deliver on its promise of an inclusive intellectual learning community to prepare students for lives of integrity, ambition, and purpose.

“Being able to see and hold up the value of every person is obviously central to educators. The way we do our work as admissions officers is as educators, even for those we can’t admit. We want to create a process that enables them to be seen and heard in a true holistic, human sense. We look at what each human has achieved, how they navigated their personal and educational growth, how they are creating their future and how Haverford connects to that,” says Lord. 

On a practical level, one example of how that looks different than at many institutions is in consensus-based decision-making. There are nine people who work together to make admission decisions, either in the full group of nine or in small groups. The goal is to reach consensus, rather than voting. 

“Consensus does not mean that everyone agrees. It means everyone consents to the decision. We make different decisions because of this than if we did voting. It requires everyone to agree to listen to and value everyone’s advocacy, recentering ourselves each time. It helps us control for bias and helps us to think more deeply about the qualities that contribute to the Haverford community. We are looking for individuals who will thrive here and take advantage of what we have to offer,” says Lord. 

Lord has a lot of tools at his disposal as he works to create a fair, equitable, and just future, including generous funding from Haverford’s endowment and operating budget for financial aid and the College’s active embrace of programs such as QuestBridge. QuestBridge is a national educational non-profit organization that connects high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds with top colleges and universities in order to support their path.

Haverford has partnered with QuestBridge since 2008 and during that time, it has admitted more than 650 students through the program. The students have become known as top performers across campus over the years, thanks to the competitiveness of the Questbridge program. Haverford matches with 20 QuestBridge students each year through the QuestBridge Match process and many others who use their QuestBridge application in the Early and Regular Decision processes.

“Partnering with QuestBridge has helped us to bring an extraordinarily diverse group of students to Haverford, including many first-generation college students and students from rural areas. The pool is incredibly strong,” he says. Haverford reaches out to QuestBridge students through conferences, college fairs and by inviting students to campus in order to encourage their interest in the College. Like all QuestBridge partner schools, Haverford commits to zero family contribution for admitted students. 

“It’s a phenomenal experience and really helps us reach students we wouldn’t otherwise meet,” says Lord, who adds, “The QuestBridge partnership has made an extraordinary contribution to Haverford - several student council presidents, honor council co-chairs, and summa and magna cum laude graduates have been QuestBridge students.”

Like most colleges with a low acceptance rate, Haverford is competing for the best students in an ever-shrinking pool. Declines in birth rates accelerated around 2007, meaning there are fewer and fewer students available to fill college places in the coming years. A competing pressure is the rising cost of education. Because Haverford commits to meeting 100 percent of the demonstrated family need for every student and likewise commits to ensuring that the most debt a graduate can leave with is $12,000, finding the funds for every student is a huge job. Four out of every five applicants to Haverford apply for financial aid. 

That’s where Lord’s deep and broad understanding of the educational landscape plays such an important role in getting the balance right. Lord has to constantly ensure that Haverford’s reputation attracts the best students. Lord believes word-of-mouth goodwill from students and alums about the Haverford experience plays a substantial role in the high quality and large number of applications Haverford receives each year.

“Our reason for existence is to educate students, and we want great students. That means we have to market ourselves, of course, but it goes well beyond that, because all good schools are marketing themselves. It’s essential that we are doing good hard work, but the proof is in the pudding,” he says. 

Lord is proud of the work his team does in recruiting the best and brightest, but more importantly, building the Haverford community. 

“It’s such a privilege to be able to play a role in building the student community for a place like Haverford. It’s an amazing place. Our job is to build the student community in a way that reflects the values of the institution. This is my 31st year doing admissions. I’ve made so many decisions. Every application I read, I think anew about how to read the file. Where we sit, we are working to fulfill the mission of our institution, and we are helping Haverford navigate an extremely competitive marketplace,” he adds. 

Lord, when not reading admissions files, or meeting applicants, is spending time with his wife and three kids, baking bread, or gardening.