<p>Tell me about it. My daughter’s school (with 1475 students) spent $115 million on three major building projects over the last five years. The just broke ground a fourth…another 75 bed dormitory.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, these are capital budgets amortized (one way or another) over 30 years. As you correctly point out, this spending is largely separate from annual operating budgets, although they may put the squeeze on operating budgets depending on the financial underpinnings of the institution.</p>
<p>Some of it is just timing. For example, Harvard is building a huge war chest to cover the cost of their new Allston campus – that won’t be started for years (Boston politics) and will be hideously expensive. It’s projected to be built over 30 years.</p>
<p>I did a little research on Swat which I believe is the school you are using as a model. The are a bit unique, I believe, in that they do fundraise for every new building and don’t start design until the money is in the bank. In my research I found that some felt constructon projects were overly delayed due to that rule, but they will never go broke using that approach.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is also unique in being extremely disciplined in holding down its enrollment. Over history of the school, the growth curve has been linear, averaging 11 additional students per year. The only bump where the growth deviated from a straight line was a few year period immediately following WWII.</p>
<p>They’ve actually held enrollment flat for the last decade (1482 in '96, 1484 in '06) as they have been in the process of a major renovation to one of the larger dormitory spaces (Parrish Hall) and the construction of two new dorms (75 beds each). They broke ground on the second of the two new dorms last month. The plan is to use those 75 new beds to replace some less desireable rooms on campus and to accomodate recent trends of virtually nobody wanting to live off campus.</p>
<p>I’ve seen no indications that they plan to increase enrollment at all in the near future. Last year’s freshman class over enrolled by nine students, so they reduced the target a corresponding amount for this year.</p>
<p>Containing enrollment growth is a key element in private college financial strength. I’m a little surprised that everyone is up in arms at WashU-Stl decision to reduce undergrad enrollment by 500. It’s probably a very sound decision on many levels. I feel like the old guy giving Benjamin one word of advice at the cocktail party in The Graduate. “Per Student Endowment”</p>
<p>yeah, i think many schools are getting better… i bet all of them… but everyone is always listing privates(except UF)… and not that they aren’t … but what about:
Indiana
UMASS Amherst(despite budget cuts)
Virginia Tech
Georgia (and GTech)
and of course many more,
most public flagships 10/20 years ago were nothing to brag about, but now admissions have decreased and those schools are getting way better in many ways.</p>
<p>grownveld9
You are dead on in your comments. Many, many schools are benefitting from this expanded and higher quality applicant pool. The schools you listed and many others are considerably more selective than even a few years ago. The key questions will be if they can build on this and whether the public (or the media) will notice it and appreciate the quality upgrade.</p>
<p>schools with the greatest increase in math plus verbal SAT scores 2001 to 2006</p>
<p>this might be somewhat random</p>
<p>Rice University 90
Occidental College 80
Gettysburg College 80
Scripps College 70
Yale University 70
University of Miami 70
University of Chicago 70
Tufts University 70
University of Southern California 60
University of Connecticut 60
American University 60
George Washington University 60
Washington University in St Louis 60
SUNY at Binghamton 60
Denison University 60
University of Pittsburgh-Main Campus 60
The University of Tennessee 60
Vanderbilt University 60
Wellesley College 55
Albion College 55
Thomas Aquinas College 50
University of Denver 50
University of Delaware 50
Hanover College 50
University of Notre Dame 50
Kalamazoo College 50
Princeton University 50
Dickinson College 50
Haverford College 50
Lafayette College 50
Austin College 50
Southern Methodist University 50
Washington and Lee University 50
University of Florida 40
Grinnell College 40
Bowdoin College 40
University of Maryland-College Park 40
Clark University 40
Michigan State University 40
St. Olaf College 40
Barnard College 40
Colgate University 40
Kenyon College 40
Oberlin College 40
Bryn Mawr College 40
Brown University 40
Furman University 40
University of Washington-Seattle Campus 40
Whitman College 40
Beloit College 40</p>
<p>schools with the largest percent increase in applications 2001 to 2006</p>
<p>I know that Wells college just started admitting males. Hard to explain the rest. The number of high school graduates has increased over the past 5 years. Among the Ivies, it looks like Cornell has increased most in popularity.</p>
<p>Ursinus College 192.1
Baylor University 167.9
Wells College 157.6
Saint Louis University-Main Campus 117.3
Kenyon College 112.4
Birmingham Southern College 109.9
Mills College 96.0
Union College 93.4
Tulane University of Louisiana 91.1
Willamette University 81.6
Drew University 80.3
Reed College 76.4
Fordham University 70.3
Cornell University 69.9
Thomas Aquinas College 68.3
St Mary’s College of Maryland 67.7
Rhodes College 67.4
Randolph-Macon College 65.0
Marquette University 65.0
Bard College 62.6
Case Western Reserve University 61.0
Johns Hopkins University 61.0
Ohio Wesleyan University 60.7
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 59.8
Grinnell College 57.6
Scripps College 56.1
Centre College 55.4
University of Connecticut 54.1
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 53.3
Albion College 52.0
Yale University 50.9
Pitzer College 50.5
Denison University 50.2
Wofford College 49.5
The University of Tennessee 48.3
Goucher College 47.8
Pomona College 46.6
Lawrence University 46.1
Occidental College 46.1
American University 45.4
Allegheny College 45.0
Earlham College 44.1
Southern Methodist University 43.7
Hanover College 43.5
Washington and Lee University 43.4
St. Olaf College 43.3
Macalester College 41.5
College of the Holy Cross 41.1
University of California-Santa Cruz 40.8
Bryn Mawr College 40.1
Boston College 39.5
Wake Forest University 39.3
Gettysburg College 39.0
Dickinson College 38.7
Swarthmore College 38.5
Austin College 37.9
Dartmouth College 36.8
University of Notre Dame 36.3
Syracuse University 36.0
SUNY at Binghamton 35.9
DePauw University 35.6
Kalamazoo College 35.6
New College of Florida 34.3
Beloit College 33.9
University of Pittsburgh-Main Campus 33.8
Lehigh University 33.0
Wellesley College 32.2
Indiana University-Bloomington 31.7
The University of Texas at Austin 30.4
Rice University 30.2
Haverford College 30.2</p>
<p>barrons, you might be right but Ursinus also had a substantial drop in the admit rate. the increase in apps exceeds the decrease in admit rate.</p>
<p>Tulane admit rate may have been affected by the hurricane.</p>
<p>schools with the greatest decrease in admissions percent 2001 to 2006</p>
<p>Baylor University -36
Birmingham Southern College -35
Ursinus College -33
Kenyon College -33
Reed College -31
Agnes Scott College -27
Gettysburg College -25
Tulane University of Louisiana -23
Randolph-Macon College -22
Dickinson College -21
Southern Methodist University -21
Grinnell College -20
Denison University -19
Scripps College -19
Colorado College -19
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities -19
Rhodes College -18
University of Connecticut -17
Wells College -17
Centre College -17
Pitzer College -17
Wheaton College -17
Lawrence University -17
Ohio Wesleyan University -16
Allegheny College -16
Bryn Mawr College -16
American University -15
The University of Texas at Austin -15
Juniata College -14
Macalester College -14
Marquette University -13
Syracuse University -13
Wofford College -12
University of Florida -12
Earlham College -12
University of Georgia -12
University of Washington-Seattle Campus -12
George Washington University -11
St. Olaf College -11
Vanderbilt University -11
Pomona College -11
University of Maryland-College Park -11
Spelman College -10
Hanover College -10
Worcester Polytechnic Institute -10
Kalamazoo College -9
University of Southern California -9
Colgate University -9
Lehigh University -9
College of the Holy Cross -9
St Mary’s College of Maryland -9
University of Pittsburgh-Main Campus -9
Franklin and Marshall College -9
Willamette University -9
University of Notre Dame -9
Bennington College -9
Clark University -8
Fordham University -8
Drew University -8
Virginia Military Institute -8
Emory University -8
Ohio State University-Main Campus -8
Washington and Lee University -8
Barnard College -7
Wellesley College -7
Furman University -7
Swarthmore College -7
Hope College -7
Haverford College -7
Case Western Reserve University -7
University of California-Santa Cruz -6
Bard College -6
Johns Hopkins University -6
University of Miami -6
Yale University -6
Occidental College -6
Albion College -6
Bucknell University -6
University of Delaware -6
Claremont McKenna College -6
Illinois Wesleyan University -5
College of William and Mary -5
Dartmouth College -5
University of California-Riverside -5
Williams College -5
Carleton College -5
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor -5
University of Rochester -5
Whitman College -5
Indiana University-Bloomington -5
Thomas Aquinas College -5
Davidson College -5
Boston College -5
Hobart William Smith Colleges -4
Austin College -4
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -4
Auburn University Main Campus -4
Vassar College -4
University of Chicago -4
University of Pennsylvania -4
Wabash College -4</p>
<p>i heard NYU had a decrease in applicants this year, apparently because of the new SAT II requirement? from 27% last year to 32% this year i believe.</p>
<p>LAC’S- Davidson, Holy Cross, Bucknell. All 3 have become more popular and perhaps Holy Cross-near Boston and Davidson-near Charlotte offer alternatives to many LAC’s that are very remote.</p>
<p>A lot of these drops in admission rates and the like have to do with the fact that there are more kids than ever right now who are at the high school senior/college freshman age—therefore more of them are applying to college than ever before. I believe that statistically, the class that applied for slots in the classes of 2009 was the largest group in American history—boomers’ kids! It also has to do with the fact that more and more kids apply to college every year because now not only are we expected to have high school and undergraduate degrees to succeed in our hyper-competitive, increasingly globalized society, but to have graduate degrees as well.</p>