<p>Just thought people might find this interesting. Not exactly news, I think we all rather knew this was happening. Still, it puts some specifics to the situation. I just wish the article had mentioned what the average actual cost of attendance is at all these schools, since Tulane's cost is cut by about 1/3 when all the scholarships are taken into account. Not sure what the comparative stats are at LSU, Loyola, etc.</p>
<p>Also a bit surprised the class is only 20 people less (if that is accurate, we will see). They originally kept saying that they expected to take something like 100 less people. But again, that can be hard to control.</p>
<p>Loyola</a> expects new student enrollment to be down 30 percent | wwltv.com New Orleans</p>
<p>I meant to ask the question about the enrollment for this class at orientation and just forgot. Did anyone else happen to hear a number?</p>
<p>They said they wouldn’t announce an official number until classes start. There are always a few that just don’t show up, and a few that melt away during the summer for various reasons (got into another school at the last minute that they wanted more, financial reversals, health and/or family issues, that kind of thing), so they wait to see a final number.</p>
<p>Interesting article. Thanks for sharing it, FC. A takeaway from it, at least in my opinion, is that more prestigious private schools are weathering the mediocre economy better than less well-known universities. Thus, Tulane and other fine schools do not lack for scores of qualified applicants, whereas other schools cannot even fill their Freshman classes.</p>
<p>Since they were talking about in-state rates, if they took into account what the average in-state student paid, LSU would have been very inexpensive since so many get free tuition there with TOPS. And if you compared what the students who got accepted at Tulane would have paid at LSU, it would be an even bigger difference since those students most likely would have been in the honors college and received more scholarships along with a TOPS stipend. Without our need based aid, LSU would have cost us a hair over $4k for tuition/fees and room and board (not counting books and other expenses) while Tulane would have cost us about $47k for the same.</p>
<p>About all these schools have in common is their home state location. LSU is probably 80+% in-staters, low cost, and a huge size. TU is small, more expensive, more selective and only 13% in-state.</p>
<p>TU’s sweet spot is getting a smart kid from NY, IL CA or LA to come to TU and pay $25-35k for a private college experience rather than $55k at a higher ranked private school. I think that’s actually a pretty good business model in a recession (if you can pull it off). Last year’s freshman class was over-subscribed in a recession. LSU’s model is good in a recession too – be the low cost provider to in-state students. Those two schools really aren’t in the same business.</p>
<p>The model for mid-major, regional, private universities is a challenge these days.</p>