Questions About Enrollment from the Faculty
Fall enrollment-wise, how do we compare to our peers, especially in Texas?
This year, the United States graduated the smallest number of 18 yearolds in almost two decades. It is part of a long-term decline in the
number of high-school students. In Texas, we saw almost no growth in
the number of high school students, which is better than almost
everywhere where else in the country. With supply in higher education
being unchanged and a decrease in demand, as represented by the
smaller high school class, this was a very competitive recruitment cycle.
A great many institutions in the US and Texas missed their enrollment
targets, though some did quite well. Those schools that met their goals
this year generally saw greater than expected increases in the financial
aid budgets, negatively affecting their revenue picture. In Texas, I know
than St. Mary’s, Austin College, the University of Dallas, Southwestern,
Hardin Simmons, among others missed their target numbers by varying
degrees. The worst scenario I have heard was that St. Mary’s missed
their class by more than 100 students. I have not confirmed this with
their enrollment VP, but heard it from a member of their staff. Trinity
and St. Edward’s did well with enrolling students, but saw their discount
rates rise more than was expected.
·
What types of students are applying vs. those we admit? Are we continuing
to try to aim for a strong academic level of the students we admit?
TLU receives applications from a broad academic cross section of
students. We have seen a decline in the number of very weak
applications who apply to TLU, but still receive more of these types of
applications than I would prefer. We admitted 55% of the students who
applied for admission, but have been intentionally focused on only
admitted students who we feel have the academic ability to be
successful at TLU. Our average SAT is in the mid-1000 range. My long
term goal is to get the enrolling student average to around 1100 and to
have at least half of the students graduating in the top 25% of their
classes (around a third at present).
·
Could you explain a bit more about the new scholarship model (no PACE
day, but rather getting financial aid information into family’s hands as early
as possible; possible positive results).
We know from data provided by the College Board, that more than two
thirds of students and their families eliminated colleges from their list
(before even applying) due to cost. We also know from our own
experience that it has become very difficult to get the best students to
commit to attending a scholarship weekend due to their busy schedules.
For these two reasons, we felt it necessary to revise our scholarship
program to put more information on the front end of the recruitment
process about scholarship eligibility to allow families to see more clearly
their net cost at TLU. The scholarship program was simplified (small
add-on awards were eliminated) and the base scholarship amounts were
enhanced. Students and their parents can determine their scholarship
by looking at a grid with SAT/ACT information and GPAs. Greater
transparency in providing financial aid information will help grow the
number of applications, as families can wrap their minds around TLU’s
true cost earlier in the recruitment process.
·
There were appreciative comments from one department chair about how
responsiveness has improved between Enrollment Services and their
department (weekly reports of interested students, etc.) How is Enrollment
Services beefing up interactions with the academic departments?
A staff member has been given the responsibility for coordinating faculty
activities that support recruitment efforts. We are hosting breakfasts for
departments to stay to promote interaction between the admission
counselors and faculty. Each staff member has been assigned a group
of academic departments to meet throughout the year to collect
information. We are always open to ideas for faculty involvement in the
student recruiting. My door is always open and I always welcome an
opportunity to meet with the faculty to discuss concerns and share
progress.
·
What kinds of strategies do we have for recruiting transfer students?
We are focused on building relationships with the Alamo Colleges and
Austin Community College systems, which is where most of our twoyear transfer students begin their education. A year ago, we
reorganized the office to make transfer recruitment a primary
responsibility and promoted Alecia McCain to director of transfer
admission. We are targeting Phi Theta Kappa students and working
with that organization to increase TLU’s visibility among its members.
We have hosted their state conference on campus. Increasing our
visibility among veterans is important to this effort.
·
What’s up with the skewed male:female ratio? Is there a strategy to recruit
more women students?
TLU saw another decline in the number of women who applied, were
admitted, and ultimately enrolled at TLU. The admit and yield rates for
women were similar to that of men. Our problem was that women did
not apply in sufficient numbers to allow us to meet our enrollment
objective. We have identified two issues that may have negatively
impacted applications from women. The first issue is that our campus
visit programs did not have enough of an emphasis on rigorous
academics. Last spring the Office of Admissions hired a consulting firm
to evaluate the visit experience and conduct small focus groups with
students and their parents. We learned that there was a lot of
information provided about academic support and student services,
creating an impression that TLU is a good school for students who may
struggle with college level course work. The consultants also felt that
athletics factored too heavily into the programming. Women tend to be
higher achieving students and more likely to be turned off to an
institution that is vague on academic opportunities and outcomes. As a
result, the campus visit programs have been completely overhauled
with a schedule of events that puts more access on academics and
opportunities around the academic experience. The Marketing and
Communications Office worked with the admission staff to rewrite the
campus tour script and provide training to our student ambassadors to
ensure a consistency of message across the different visit experiences
prospective students have. We also have heard concerns expressed
about the configuration of Centennial Hall. Women and their parents
have expressed negative opinions about the co-education and
community bath set up of that residence hall. Students and families are
willing to accept the fact it has community bath, though they don’t like it,
but the fact that floors are co-ed is problematic for them. The University
may have to look at having single gender floors within a co-ed building,
since there is nothing that can be done about the bathroom set-up.
While this is a problem in the recruitment of new students, it is important
to note that students generally have good experiences in Centennial
once they are enrolled, but the current configuration is a tough sell in a
competitive market where students have lots of options.