Well-Regarded Public Colleges Get a Surge of Bargain Hunters

[audiophile]

<p>Surprised to see this hasn’t been posted yet (or maybe I missed it). From today’s NYT: <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/nyregion/02suny.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=new%20paltz&st=cse[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/nyregion/02suny.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=new%20paltz&st=cse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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March 2, 2009
Well-Regarded Public Colleges Get a Surge of Bargain Hunters
By LISA W. FODERARO</p>

<p>NEW PALTZ, N.Y. — Admissions officers at the State University of New York college campus here are suddenly afraid of getting what they have always wished for: legions of top high-school seniors saying “yes” to their fat envelopes.</p>

<p>Students are already tripled up in many dorm rooms after an unexpectedly large freshman class entered last fall. And despite looming budget cuts from the state, which more tuition-paying students could help offset, officials say they are determined not to diminish the quality of student life by expanding enrollment at their liberal-arts college beyond the current 6,000 undergraduates.</p>

<p>At SUNY New Paltz, as at many other well-regarded public institutions this spring, admissions calculations carefully measured over many years are being set aside as an unraveling economy is making less expensive state colleges more appealing.</p>

<p>The application deadline is not until April 1, but officials here conservatively predict 15,500 students competing for 1,100 spots, a 12 percent jump over last year.</p>

<p>Similar surges are occurring at public colleges and universities across the country, education experts say.

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Private colleges, which are more expensive than public institutions, are facing a different problem: worried about losing students, they are trying to find ways to increase financial aid.

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