This morning the Philadelphia Inquirer published a story by experienced education reporter Susan Snyder about widespread failures by colleges in the Northeast and Midwest to meet new-student enrollment targets this fall. The main culprits, of course, are the demographics of the region, the cost of college, a decline in applications and enrollment of foreign students, and resulting cutthroat competition among colleges. Little of that looks to improve in the foreseeable future.
An accompanying story suggests that, at Temple University, a successful program to improve its four-year graduation rate – Fly In Four – is also contributing to shrinking enrollments.
Interesting. At the same time UW Madison’s freshman enrollment went from 6610 in 2017, to 6862 in 2018, to 7550 in 2019. Price? Freshman class is 51% in state this year which is a low.
My kid is attending there. He is from OOS. I can say it was going to be about 10K more to send him to any private school where he got their max merit package (similar to these CTCL LACs). And 2-3X more to send him to other higher ranked institutions. Price vs. value vs. specifics about faculty were big in the decision making process. Honestly, we were more excited about the academics and opportunities at the bigger school (especially given the lower price tag) though we started the process thinking he’d end up at one of those smaller schools.
<<”We [colleges] are being questioned as to our core values, our purpose, our efficacy, as well as our cost," said Bravman, of Bucknell, where tuition, fees, and room and board exceed $72,000.>>
Yikes, didn’t know that costs had gone that high. So thankful my kids are finishing up this year. This is not sustainable.
Interesting article. Bucknell is a private school with a good academic reputation, so you wouldn’t expect it to be cheap, but $72K per year seems a bit high for a school in the middle of nowhere. Also, I was surprised that 69 people who put down a deposit at Muhlenberg in the Spring simply failed to show up for the start of school. That’s over 10% of the class. Is that normal?
There are also colleges that are seeing their application rates increase at a very strong rate. This appears to be more of the haves and have nots. Colleges are pricing themselves out of the market unless they are a top school Strong/good schools that are just as pricey as the top schools are stuck in the middle. There have also been articles about very small colleges failing and closing down. They don’t offer enough for the prices they are asking for.
@MusakParent It may be of note to some that your kid is attending Madison from MN, which has reciprocity. UW Madison is an expensive school from OOS without reciprocity.
Yes, sorry @bigmacbeth I should have mentioned that. But that said, Madison may fall cheaper for some families considering OOS/private options at about 50K. About 10% of UW Madison students are MN students receiving reciprocity. That has become a more competitive admit. I just met someone whose kid got into some more competitive smaller LACs that didn’t get into Madison.
I think just a couple years ago my high stat kid would have received a better financial deal at some of these smaller schools than he ended up being offered.
https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/summer-melt says that, in the Fort Worth school district, the summer melt rate was 48% (but 19% for white students, 59% for Latino students, and 56% for low income students).
In parallel, due to Dept of Justice pressure/lawsuit, NACAC has had to remove their “May 1” clause, meaning students will no longer have to make a decision by May 1st - first likely result: non refundable enrollment fees doubling or tripling, second likely result ED increasing in importance. Casualty: lower income students and students at high schools without dedicated college counselors or GCs who have too many students to advise properly.
Very interesting. I wonder if the tide is turning wrt the extreme increase in admissions competitiveness we’ve seen over the last few years? Or are only not-quite-top LACs affected?
If a student gets off a waitlist at a college they prefer and can afford, they may well forego the deposit at the school they chose in April. Bucknell, Dickinson and others may have taken kids from Muhlenberg.
@MYOS1634 I know the possibility of drastically increasing enrollment fees has been mentioned before, but I’m sure it would also be treated as a possible violations of antitrust laws.
The Justice Department is already looking into ED.
Failure to meet admissions targets by a large number of schools could result in a reduction in cost of attendance through either more financial aid (need based & merit) or lower tuition & fees. Supply & demand should lead to price adjustments.
If I recall correctly, several months ago Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania announced reductions in tuition & fees in order to attract more applications & matriculations.
Yes, but it means students no longer have a target date and colleges can “poach” students throughout the summer.
In my opinion, having a target date and sticking with it was an important part of the college admissions process for students. In addition, I don’t see how we can prevent enrollment fee increases.
Yes, ED is also looked into - in that it would be inadmissible to reserve specific scholarships to early admits and it wouldn’t be legally binding. It wouldn’t stop colleges from increasing the percentage of students it admits this way.
I see these changes as improving the odds of full pay kids and lowering the odds of everyone else.
A little surprised that students are considering a community college (close to free) vs Muhlenberg (Tuition: $54,600 a year)? Especially now that you’re reaching out to lower SES students?
Using College Navigator:
AVERAGE NET PRICE BY INCOME.
Muhlenberg
0 to $30,000: $15,313
30,001 to $48,000: $14,736
Bucknell
0 to $30,000: $22,480
30,001 to $48,000: $17,374
Yep, why not consider a CC or a public university?. I don’t blame the kids for writing off the deposit and not showing up.
Average net price is generated by subtracting the average amount of federal, state/local government, or institutional grant or scholarship aid from the total cost of attendance. Total cost of attendance is the sum of published tuition and required fees, books and supplies, and the weighted average for room and board and other expenses.
Perhaps it will accelerate the trend toward choosing “elite or cheap”, as students and parents decide that expensive non-elite colleges are not worth the money (and those colleges are vulnerable to having to close)?