Indiana University School of Dentistry’s (IUSD) Office of Student Affairs and Admissions is here to help students before and after they’ve been accepted, through two units: (1) student affairs; (2) admissions and enrollment management.
“The framework of what my role encompasses is recruitment, recruitment, recruitment,” said Dr. Sylvia Frazier-Bowers, associate dean for student affairs and admissions. “It’s not just getting people in the building through admissions, it’s making them feel like you want them here for this experience through our offerings in student services.”
Key duties of Frazier-Bowers and her team include managing the admissions process, providing student support services, building community, and developing policy and collaboration. They also oversee events such as the White Coat Ceremony, Scholarship Banquet, Honors and Awards, and the School Recognition Event each year. Frazier-Bowers remarked on the White Coat Ceremony as an important guidepost for faculty, students, and staff as it represents an actual, moral guidepost that speaks to our shared purpose. “The White Coat Ceremony rivals the importance of graduation. It codifies the entry into IUSD as a student, but also as a member of the profession for a lifetime.”
Four team members in admissions, including Dr. Angela Ritchie, admissions committee chair and assistant dean for admissions and enrollment management, handle an average of 1,300 DDS applications each year, as well as 350 applications for the International Dentist Program (IDP). They also organize 15–20 recruitment events each year, conduct 14 one-on-one advising sessions per week, and make more than 120 personal acceptance calls to applicants every admissions cycle.
Each month, the student affairs team meets one-on-one with over 100 students, fields 200-plus walk-in visitors to their office, conducts approximately 80 financial aid sessions and 30 wellness visits, creates 15 customized reference letters, and coordinates two major student events.
“The student experience begins with recruitment, but you have to keep enriching and expanding this step with more because that’s what they’re going to remember after they graduate,” Frazier-Bowers continued. “It doesn’t mean we can erase the possibility of ‘a bad day,’ but you can try to fill their ‘everyday’ with something positive.”
Since Frazier-Bowers joined IUSD in 2022, the initiatives she and her team have instituted to enrich the student experience include the Student Leadership Board, Match Day celebration, #OPPORTUNITY Week, Student National Dental Association Impressions Day, Second Look, Career Fair, and Fellowship for Finals, among others.
“The student experience would not be what it is without our team,” Frazier-Bowers concluded. “I am eternally grateful to them for helping uplift our mission of creating #opportunity for excellence in dentistry.”