Who gets into Yale? A new boss decides

Kids, if you work really hard and graduate at the top of your high school class, maybe you'll get accepted to Yale. And if you work really hard and graduate at the top of your Yale College class, maybe you'll get to decide who's accepted at Yale.

That's the trajectory of Jeremiah Quinlan ’03, newly named as dean of undergraduate admissions. On July 1—just a decade after graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa—Quinlan will step into the position that Jeffrey Brenzel ’75 has held for the past eight years.

Brenzel (who will stay on as master of Timothy Dwight College and will teach full-time) has been Quinlan's boss for the past several years. Quinlan hired into the admissions office after graduation, left in 2008 to get an MBA at Northwestern's Kellogg School, and returned in 2010 as Brenzel's deputy.

Quinlan worked closely with Brenzel "on important strategic decisions, personnel matters, and office policy," Yale says in a press release. "He led the development of Yale’s approach to the recruitment and selection of students interested in science and engineering, and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of YES (Yale Engineering and Science) Weekend. . . . Quinlan has also worked closely with colleagues to develop a new communications strategy for prospective students and parents, and new procedures for measuring the effectiveness of outreach and recruitment efforts."

On top of all that, Quinlan served as the inaugural admissions dean for Yale-NUS College, the joint venture in Singapore that opens its doors next fall.