A school that was briefly on our radar (fell off the list for other reasons pre-visit) has a typical enrollment of 600-700 students, but recently released a news release that they have a freshman class of 400 (and an additional 35 incoming transfer students) and a total enrollment of 800. What do you make of a school where half of the student body is freshmen? Good sign of a growing institution? Or signs that something odd may be going on retention or recruitment of students?
You can probably find something in a communication to alumni or in an open letter from the president. Many schools realize that they are not “right-sized” for one reason or another. It sounds like this one feels like it can better serve its students by being a little bigger. It’s encouraging that they had enough good applicants to do it.
It’s not Hampshire College, is it?
@dropbox77177 No, Hampshire would be the other way around.
If it is a 2 year community college or junior college, then the numbers make sense.
Nope–small, highly religious LAC in SC.
Converse College ? Regardless, the school obviously has an extremely high attrition rate & should be approached with caution.
P.S. Surprised that there are several schools in South Carolina with such a tiny enrollment.
Erskine.
Erskine awards financial aid to 100% of the student body. Many find this attractive, but only about 70% return for their second year. Obviously many fail to return for their third year.
Consider Berry College in Rome, Georgia.
Are Freshman retention and 4/6-year graduation rates available via CDS or the schools’ web site. Either they just decided to get much bigger or lots of students don’t return/don’t graduate. The latter would be a big red flag.
EDIT: The fact that links to additional data for education effectiveness and student achievement on the Erskine site point to to extinct Wayback Machine URLs would have this immediately off my list.
What I make of it is that they don’t graduate their admitted students. Have they determined letting in freshman and transfers is worth the tuition as a one (maybe 2) year income? Agreed…proceed with caution.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=erskine&s=all&id=217998#netprc says that average net price in various income brackets has significantly increased in the last few years. In particular, every income bracket saw a large increase in net price from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. It would not be surprising if that resulted in many students dropping out or transferring away for cost reasons.
Note that other parts of that page indicate that first to second year retention from fall 2017 to fall 2018 was only 54%. This is actually slightly worse than the 4, 6, and 8 year graduation rates for previous entrants reported on the same page.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2017/08/01/2017-forbes-college-financial-grades-e-through-m/ indicates that Forbes rated Erskine’s financial strength at C- in 2017.
Red flag would be my impression. One may hope a small school will yield a better social environment but with such a high attrition rate it is unlikely friends made as freshmen will be around the next year. One also would need to consider the likelihood of needing to do the college search again for a transfer. Plus- with so few students where are the upper class offerings? I wouldn’t use the word “odd” but rather poorly run.
I would ask what the deal is. The school could have increased size. It could have decided to go from a junior year in up school to allowing some freshmen in some programs. It could have decided to specialize in rare programs Junior and senior year and encouraged their sophomores to go elsewhere if not interested in those specific programs. Or just have very limited fare for those after their first years.
It is wise to be aware of issues schools may have, and I urge all to research schools on their lists for flags. But some issues may be to some students’ advantages. It can be an admissions bargain at that level of name recognition, it can provide great aid, offer more directed attention, etc. For a risk.