Seth Allen Returns to Dickinson as Vice President of Enrollment Management
Photo by Dan Loh.
After stints at Grinnell and Pomona, former dean of admissions is ready for a homecoming
Seth Allen, who served first as Dickinson’s director and then dean of admissions from 1999-2007, rejoined the college full time on September 11 as the new vice president of enrollment management. Allen recently retired as vice president for strategy and dean of admissions & financial aid at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.
“Homecomings can be rare and precious, and that’s exactly what it feels like coming back to the college after years away,” says Allen, who reversed course on retirement after learning of this opportunity and meeting with groups on campus. “Dickinson is a place of such permanence, purpose and accomplishment that is both familiar and yet new again.”
Allen brings decades of exceptional experience with admissions and financial aid and has achieved strong results throughout his career. During Allen’s tenure, Pomona saw years of record applications, improved yield on accepted students and significant increases in representation from diverse student populations in the applicant pool and the student body.
Prior to Pomona, Allen served as dean of admission & financial aid at Grinnell College, from 2007-11, during which time he and his team improved selectivity, yield and diversity. He is also a past president of the Common Application and a founding director of the Coalition for College and has served on numerous national and international committees that have helped shape modern admission efforts.
Through his previous posts with Dickinson, Allen helped to increase applications and international and domestic diversity as well as the academic quality of students. Before coming to Dickinson in 1999, he worked in the admissions office at Johns Hopkins, ultimately serving as director of enrollment planning, research & technology. While there, he honed his skills around data and how it could be used to inform and evaluate enrollment outcomes.
Allen has overseen marketing and branding studies at both Pomona and Grinnell and throughout his career has been active working with other institutions to amplify the distinctiveness of the liberal arts. He also has worked to improve retention, building a strong record of working across divisions with faculty and staff to achieve enrollment goals.
And he’s excited to return to Dickinson to work with our community.
“It’s a second chance and an opportunity to put into practice what I wish I knew then during my first turn at the college,” says Allen. “I’m energized and ready to roll up my sleeves to work alongside President Jones and the entire Dickinson community to better tell the story of this already storied place and to make this a first-choice institution for even more students who will be transformed by a Dickinson education.”
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Published September 12, 2024