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College Trends Spring 2024

Costs, Admit Rates, Yield, Campus Protests, and Co-ops/Internships

Costs – Continue to rise

An April 5^th NY Times article created quite a stir. Some Colleges Will Soon Charge $100,000 a Year. How Did This Happen? – The New York Times (nytimes.com) It’s not surprising with inflation in the US economy that it would undoubtably wind its way into the cost of college. For most families this heavy price tag is stunning. One family I worked with received the cost ramp up rate for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years: the 4^th year itself was around $97,000. Colleges are beginning to prepare their future classes for the hard reality of cost.

Admit Rates – Continue to decrease

Class of 2028 Overall Admission Rates from selected colleges:

Boston University – 11%; Duke – 5%; Florida State 22%; Northwestern 8%, (source: College Kickstart)

As costs rise and admit rates drop at highly regarded schools, more applicants are looking at public state universities that have lower costs. These public universities have become more than just a safety school. And because of this, State universities are seeing unprecedented application growth. Admit rates will continue to decline as students get anxious and decide to apply to even more colleges. .

Yield – Continue to rise

Yield has become the major player from the college vantage point. One only needs to look at the ratio of those who enroll as a factor of how many seats are available. Colleges want to know that the prospective student isn’t shopping around. For most selective colleges, that yield continues to rise. For Class of 2027 : Boston College 41.36%; Brown University 63.10%, ; Cornell 66.01%; MIT 84.59%. (source: Ivywise)

College Protests at the most selective colleges and their impact

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We are watching a delicate “game” as protests on college campuses sprouted up across the country. It is probably fair to say that these are the first significant protests to occur since the Vietnam war era. I suspect that there will be a series of reactions as college administrations address what is happening. It has been distressing for families who went from being thrilled with their children’s admission success to being somewhere between concerned and embarrassed. Weren’t these supposed to be the best and brightest students? What has happened? What is the administration doing? But it is more than the current and prospective students who are affected: countless top-tier US. colleges are watching alums pull away their financial support. It is possible that the college name on a job applicant’s resume may negatively affect the candidate. This is an explosive topic right now. Parents and students must be comfortable that the campus will be safe. The definition of a “great school” is being questioned.

Internships and Co-op programs

For students who know what they want to study, these programs can be fantastic.

But there are pros and cons:

Pro: Can effectively land the job they want while still in college

Con: 1) It extends the college years and 2) If a student is off campus for an extended period, they may be missing out on many social development aspects associated with the college experience.

In summary, the college landscape is seeing unprecedented change and the impact on parents’ pocketbooks and student decisions is significant.

Haverford College, Haverford, PA

Neal Schwartz
02 Feb, 2022
0 Comments
1 Min Read

3 THINGS THAT MAKE HAVERFORD COLLEGE UNIQUE

I recently attended the HECA (Higher Education Consultants Association) conference in Philadelphia and was able to visit some schools in the area. I will be posting this information over the next few weeks.

Haverford College is a small liberal arts college with 1,200 students. If you were to use a Boston accent, it kind of sounds like that school in Cambridge, but there are many differences. I learned some new things about Philadelphia in addition to the schools I visited. For instance, Philly is known for much more than its Philly Cheese steaks; it is also known for being #1 for Millennials and #1 for Acapella groups.There are many things that I learned about Haverford, but I thought I would share three things that stood out the most:

1. 70% OF STUDENT HOUSING IS “SINGLES” – IT’S A GREAT ENVIRONMENT TO GET WORK DONE WITHOUT THE DISTRACTIONS

2. 60% OF FACULTY LIVE ON CAMPUS WHICH MAKES THEM NATURALLY MORE ACCESSIBLE

3. HONOR CODE, ADMINISTERED BY STUDENTS, COVERS EVERYTHING FROM WHERE AND WHEN ONE CAN TAKE FINAL EXAMS, TO THE ALCOHOL POLICY

Final Notes:

Haverford is a small liberal arts college with great academic focus. It does have a unique intellectually curious flavor that is not for everyone, but the combination of a beautiful campus, it’s bi-college relationship with Bryn Mawr and cross registration with Swarthmore and Penn help to ensure that practically any academic interest can be satisfied.