As lingering economic issues continue to pose a threat to college enrollments across the county, GW is expected to meet or exceed its admissions expectations, a University administrator said this week.
While the Chronicle of Higher Education reported earlier this month that some private college presidents are worried about enrollment levels for the fall 2010 semester, Senior Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services Robert Chernak said this week that GW expects to be slightly more selective in this year’s admissions process, despite being one of the most expensive universities in the nation.
“Due to our most recent experience of improving yield, it is more likely this year that we will accept a smaller percentage of applicants and establish a slightly larger waiting list,” Chernak said in an e-mail.
The University received 20,475 undergraduate applications this year, an all-time high.
Like many private colleges and universities, GW relies heavily upon enrollment – with 71 percent of its operating budget made up of enrollment-based revenue like tuition and housing – making target enrollment crucial.
The “magic number” for freshman enrollment in the class of 2014 is 2,350, Chernak said. That means 8 percent fewer students must enroll at GW than last year – when an unexpected 2,550 freshmen submitted deposits, a yield that was bolstered by an unusually light “summer melt.”
“While enrolling that specific number of freshmen exactly on target is more of an art then a science, our admissions office will make every effort to enroll within some tolerable margin of error this number of freshmen,” Chernak said in an e-mail.
Harold Hartley, senior vice president of the Council of Independent Colleges, a national service organization that serves nearly 600 four-year colleges and universities across the United States, said some presidents at private universities are worried that the high price of tuition may keep some students from applying in the first place, which could throw off enrollment numbers.
“One of the concerns that’s part of this theory is that private colleges would not even be in the choice set of students thinking about college because of their high sticker price,” Hartley said. “The theory is that 2010 is going to be worse because students have made the decision to not even apply to private colleges.”
Hartley said CIC has encouraged college presidents to bolster recruitment of non-traditional students and increase recruitment at community colleges.
And while other schools have changed recruitment strategies, according to the Chronicle report, Chernak said GW administrators focused on affordability to keep enrollment on point.
“The Board of Trustees has authorized supplemental funding for student aid for the next couple of years to help maintain stability in our enrollment,” Chernak said.
“The combination of appropriate student aid, a healthy application pool and a growing positive reputation of GW all combine to give us confidence that the new undergraduate enrollment targets will be met,” Chernak added.
