Advertising Ole Miss

Just like the Energizer bunny keeps going and going, Ole Miss seems to just

keep growing and growing. The University of Mississippi seems to have its

biggest freshmen class ever, every single year. Besides Ole Miss' years or

traditions, the Grove, and SEC atmosphere, what is it that seems to keep

bringing upcoming high school students to this campus?

Cass Dodgen, director of pre-college programs, says he believes the summer

programs Ole Miss offers to students contributes to a large portion of interested

freshmen. "Admission says if they can just get a student to our campus, they can

usually get almost half of those students to come to Ole Miss, so if our summer

programs can get students here for a month, it establishes a connection they

cannot turn down," said Dodgen. Dodgen said these programss are a form of

advertising the campus to high school students looking for a college home.

Dodgen said liberal arts is their biggest summer program, and seems to bring in

the most students recently.

Nadine Ramsey, coordinator of continuing education programs, says she does

not believe Ole Miss would continue to grow the way it has been without these

programs. "Ole Miss hosts many academic competitions through these

programs, and we send out lots of information because of these

competitions,"said Ramsey. Ramsey says the students learn how diverse the

campus is once they come to these programs. Ramsey says she is not trying to

credit all of Ole Miss' growth due to summer programs, but she believes that

these programs are a very big part of the university's success.