The 10 U.S. Colleges With the Biggest Application Drops

[Purveyor]

Many small, private liberal colleges are seeing fewer high school seniors apply

Sarah Grant
September 2, 2015 — 9:45 AM EDT

More than 20 million students are expected to return to college quads this fall, a 24 percent increase from 2000. Still, the enrollment surge doesn't mean that all colleges have gotten more popular. Some expensive private colleges have experienced significant drops in the number of high school seniors applying, according to a recent report. Elite Boston College has suffered the biggest plunge.

Applications to the school in the 2013-2014 academic year (the most recent for which there's data) fell 28 percent from the year before, the biggest drop of any school ranked by education research website SmartClass in a recent report. SmartClass used Department of Education data to rank application levels at the top 200 "Smart Rated" colleges—a measure that combines financial affordability, career readiness, admissions selectivity, and expert opinion and academic excellence at colleges.

Most of the schools with the greatest applications decreases are small, private liberal arts colleges. These elite schools have experienced low applicant pools since 2008, in part because of rising student debt, lower job prospects, and competition from online programs. Spooked by high tuition, many students have been been opting to learn skills seen as more practical than literature or art history, such as coding.

Boston College says its dwindling application numbers don't mean it's less desirable. Instead, they say, they've made it harder for students to apply on a whim. At the school, which is ranked in the top 35 schools in the country by U.S. News and World Report, application numbers declined when the admissions committee added an essay to its required application materials, dissuading seniors who aren't serious about the school, says Jack Dunn, a spokesperson for the school.

"After 20 straight years of increased applications to BC, we made a strategic decision to add a supplemental essay requirement ... with the expectation that it would result in a more targeted applicant pool." He added that applicant numbers are less important than who applies. "The issue is fit."

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-02/the-10-u-s-colleges-with-the-biggest-application-drops

[matt819]

1. Take a look at that list

Pointless story. With a few exceptions, the drops are at second-rate schools, or at least schools I've never heard of (how's that for arrogant?). Messiah College? Millsaps College? Wofford College?

As for the Air Force Academy, my guess is that the drop there is the bad press they get over the intensive and extensive Christian fundamentalism permeating it.

[Dr. Xavier]

3. Be careful when insulting a person's alma mater

its not polite. I graduated from USD with a Bachelors and graduated from the Law School 4 years later. It is a fantastic place located in a great location (although, I must admit that San Diego is way to right-wing because of all the sailors and marines). The school is less than seventy years old and has surpassed other more established schools in reputation. Its nursing school, business school, and law school are in the top 100 nationally. Its law school faculty is in the top 25 year in and year out for at least, the last 20 years. Its school of international studies is in the top five, and that is an international ranking. So be careful. As for the Air Force Academy, it may be because it is the most technical of the service academies, and why go to school for a degree that is really hot right now and then work for the Air Force for six years, when you can get the same degree from a good school like Stanford or Cal, and start working for yourself and be a billionaire by the time you're 27?

[matt819]

4. I specifically didn't mention San Diego.

And my only reference to usafa was the proselytizing that's been in and out of the news for years. Not about the curriculum. and my reference was to the fact that I hadn't heard of half of them. I admit I didn't take the time to check them out.

[Stuckinthebush]

5. Damn good schools

Wofford and Millsaps especially.

They are small and selective with some top notch students. I know that Wofford, for instance, has a freshman class this year with an average HS GPA of over 4.0. Millsaps is #89 in national liberal arts schools (US News) which is very good.

I am not as familiar with Messiah College but they are ranked #5 in regional liberal arts colleges in the northeast.

Many people haven't heard of these very small Liberal arts schools but they are all very good.

[rogerashton]

2. About half of the ten really are pretty good schools.

SLACs -- selective liberal arts colleges -- with good regional if not national reputations. Millsaps, for example, is well thought of in its region -- I know of it and I'm 1000 miles away. Likewise Wofford, Grinnel, Whitman, USD.

It became the fashion a few years ago to attract as many applications as possible. For example, students were sent cold e-mails with filled-in forms, click to return, no essay, no fee. Most were rejected, and this made the institution look more selective and thus improved the USNews rankings! But it also brought in students who didn't persist, reducing the 6-year graduation averages, with the opposite result. BC is not the only school to move away from that strategy recently. If may be a way of putting lipstick on a pig, though.

[CTyankee]

6. my granddaughter wants to transfer in to BC (her father's alma mater so she's a legacy)

She at the College of Charleston now. Her sister is applying to both Lafayette College and Skidmore but has to make up her mind if she wants more of small liberal arts environment or a big city school. There are plusses and minuses to each...she's going into computer science which is a good major nowadays...

[rogerashton]

7. My niece taught at Skidmore for a couple of years

about a decade ago. Saratoga is quite a tourist destination and thus has a little more urban feel than some other college towns of the same size. At least that was my impression. I liked the town pretty well, but I have this romantic thing for remote places. Lafayette is in Easton, pretty strictly a midsize city. I don't know it, though. I have no idea how strong either is in computer science. Computer science is the right major, though, even for a student who does not plan to hack code after she graduates. There are good liberal arts schools in urban locations. Several, for example, in the Philadelphia area. The good ones here are quite selective, though.

It's been a long time since I briefly visited BC. It clearly has gone through some changes. I had a conversation with a senior there -- a quite impressive young man -- who took pride in eventually being a "triple eagle" (BC prep, bachelor's and law.) It seems that BC has moved away from that, at least for a while.

I trust your family is rich. I was at yet another selective liberal arts college in a scenic area a bit like Saratoga, but a smaller town. My host showed me the athletic complex and said "We just price it out as a luxury resort and throw in the education for free." Perhaps he was joking.

[CTyankee]

8. They are a well off family. I wonder if that increases her chances of getting in.

She will also look at Trinity College in Hartford. A good friend of mine went there and really loved it. Nice looking school but Hartford isn't the greatest metropolis in the world...boring as hell compared to New Haven...

[rogerashton]

9. No one will admit it, but

tuition-driven universities welcome students who can "pay full freight."

[CTyankee]

10. That's what I thought. Her mother, my daughter, was a legacy at Mount Holyoke

(her aunt, not me) but none of her 3 daughters would deign to go to an all woman's college. Too bad, it's a great school and that 5 college consortium is a terrific opportunity for their students.