Despite tough economic times, the Wabash Admissions Department has seen a record number of applicants. Last Thursday, the College received its 1456th application, more than the previous record of 1450.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Steven Klein believes the numbers show the strength of the Wabash community, but the economic turndown still weighs on his mind.
“I think it says positive things about [our recruiters and the institution],” Klein said.” I wouldn’t just say admissions staff; I would say the Wabash community. It’s the coaches who recruit throughout the year. It’s our faculty who participate and go on the road with us. It’s our students who not only refer students from their communities but who host them when they visit. So clearly this is a very hardworking and talented staff. I think one of our strengths is our ability to get our entire community involved.”
Klein acknowledged his office has challenges ahead.
“Our goal was to fill the class with 250 or so Wabash men,” he said.” It’s important to get a sufficient number of applicants to work with, but our work is far from done. Given the economic downturn and lots of unknowns in terms of how families are going to make decisions. We are pretty much looking forward and concerned about the challenges ahead.”
One of the challenges Klein mentioned is providing sufficient aid to families of prospective students. The Admissions Office uses a model that looks at historical data of how families make college search decisions to help them project how the next term will look. However, the current economic climate is unlike anything in recent memory, Klein admitted. “We don’t know how families are going to respond.”
Klein recently returned from a conference of Admissions officials in the Great Lakes Colleges Association in Chicago. Out of 13 institutions, Wabash is one of only three that has seen an increase in applications. While the numbers look good, Klein cautioned not to read too much into them. “It’s like an athletic contest, you want to be ahead in the second quarter but it doesn’t mean you’re going to win, but you have to stay focus,” he said.
Just because the college received record applications does not mean next semester’s enrollment with meet the administration’s goal of 250 students, the number of students Klein said the college can serve well in accomplishing its mission. Colleges are expecting a 2% overall drop in the number of accepted applicants that will actually enroll.
Compared to last year, Klein said that should put the fall semester’s freshman class at around 250, if 36% of accepted applicants enroll. An additional two percent drop would put the number at 238.
“Typically in a recession, more students will go to college than in better economic times,” Klein said. “But they tend to pick community colleges and public colleges and universities. So that’s a challenge that all the private colleges are concerned about. It costs more. Families are going to have to make some decisions in circumstances where family member lost a job or less confident about a job; where retirement funds are not where people expect them to be.”
Despite economic troubles, Klein said the college admissions process will remain needs-blind. “We look for good Wabash men, potentially good Wabash men,” he said. “For years we have been a need blind admissions process. That’s not something at this point factored into how we recruit.”
Klein said his office is concerned with making the case for Wabash to families of prospective students, and no event is more important in making that case than Honors Scholar Weekend.
“People like to say, ‘as Honors goes, so goes the year,’” Klein said. “We typically get two –thirds of students who go to Honors to deposit to Wabash. So hopefully the whole community will be gearing up as students will be here over several days to make that compelling case of value that can compare to what they see at other colleges and universities. I think it’s more incumbent on us than ever to make a compelling argument for the value of a Wabash education.”
“If people are just going to make a decision on finances alone, they are all going to go to public universities and colleges. But private colleges have added values and it’s up to each of us to make our best case to those families to stress that this is an investment in your future that’s going to pay dividends over a lifetimes. It’s not like a car that you’ll drive for four years and be done with it.”