CWRU planning to adopt need-aware admissions and meet full need

[halcyonheather]

I saw [url=<a href=“http://observer.case.edu/need-aware-approved/%5Dthis%5B/url”>http://observer.case.edu/need-aware-approved/]this[/url] in the most recent student newspaper and thought it would be interesting to prospective students.

According to Vice President of Enrollment Management Rick Bischoff, a partially need-aware admissions policy will allow CWRU to meet students’ full need by ensuring that the university has enough money to provide lower income students with the financial aid they need to attend. The alternative is gapping, or the failure of the financial aid package offered to meet the difference between what a family can afford to pay and the cost of attendance. As of last year, 25 percent of CWRU students experienced gapping, supposedly due to the university’s inability to provide adequate financial aid funds.

Based on the information Bischoff provided during open forums in the fall of 2015, the new policy will consider 10 percent of applicants’ financial status before admitting them. These would be potential students the university is already considering waitlisting, and if they aren’t accepted because of need-aware policies, they would be offered a spot on the waitlist.

Currently, CWRU admissions are need-blind, so a student’s financial status is not considered unless they are being reevaluated for admission from the waitlist, which utilizes a need-aware admissions policy. It is not yet known how the policy may have evolved since last fall’s discussions.

[VryCnfsd]

That is interesting. I am trying to understand Case’s CDS in relation to this. It says they enrolled 707 freshman men and 551 freshman women. They also admitted 518 students off of the waitlist, but it doesn’t specify how many of those actually enrolled. I’m curious what percentage of the admissions this makes need aware, when you add the 10% + the waitlist.

[PrimeMeridian]

When you don’t have the luxury of a multi-billion dollar endowment, then reality bites. Gapping hurts yield.

[CT1417]

@VryCnfsd — looking at the most recent CDS, it appears that the offered a WL spot to 9,446 students. 5,119 agreed to remain on the WL, and 551 were admitted and one would think, enrolled.

[VryCnfsd]

@CT1417 Perhaps. But the CDS distinguishes between the 4406 freshman men who were admitted and the 707 who enrolled. If all 518 from the waitlist who were admitted also enrolled, then that means that just from the waitlist they are over 40% need aware already! In which case, the additional 10% is a very small change.

[CT1417]

Looks as though they use their WL a lot. (Villanova is another one that used the WL aggressively until a huge drop last year and I suspect none this year after winning @ basketball.)

I know nothing about Case so really should not have jumped in here. If you look at the CDS for other schools, you will see that they all express male & female admit rates (once you divide the admits by applied), but do not break out WL enrollment by gender.

WL Enrollments for past few years:
419 in 11-12
39 in 12-13
480 in 13-14
792 in 14-15

[halcyonheather]

Motives, in an [url=http://observer.case.edu/cwru-student-forum-need-aware-admissions/]article[/url] from last year:

CWRU’s main reason for considering need-aware admissions is the dropping enrollment of Pell grant recipients, but the Coalition Application is another factor in the decision process.

I haven’t heard anything about the Coalition Application all year, even on here where I thought it would become a huge thing. CWRU has a low yield (often attributed to its location), but it has received many more applications and become more selective in recent years. They don’t require a supplemental essay or application fee, or at least they didn’t when I applied, so they probably get a lot of “what the hell” applications.