Schools succeed in retaining freshmen

Fearing the economy would cause them to lose students over the summer, area colleges connected with incoming freshmen more than ever before.

Widener University used Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch, while Villanova University made more phone calls. St. Joseph's University even held campuswide staff meetings to ensure that accepted freshmen enrolled.

The efforts seem largely to have worked. With classes starting during the last few weeks, most area colleges say their loss of freshmen over the summer was no worse than in other years. And even those that lost more were pleased it wasn't worse.

What's known in admissions circles as "summer melt" proved to be no more than a drip or two.

"Schools like Villanova did a better job in the summer working with students and initially providing very solid financial-aid packages, and those two things made a difference in holding on to the students we have," said Stephen Merritt, dean of enrollment management.

The university, where tuition, fees, and room and board cost $49,260 this year, lost 7.5 percent of freshmen who put down deposits in the spring - the same as last year. The school spent more time phoning students, following up, and making sure that all were registered, Merritt said.

The summer push followed a spring when many schools, including Villanova, doled out more cash to bring in their class, and accepted more students in case of unusually high summer melt. Villanova pumped $55 million into aid packages this year, up 9 percent.

Nationally, institutional aid at private colleges rose 9 percent, on average - more than double the average tuition increase of 4.3 percent, the lowest in 37 years, said Tony Pals, spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. In other years, aid went up 6 or 7 percent, he said, while tuition increases were higher.

Upticks in the stock market and other economic measures during the summer probably helped schools, too, officials said.

"People started to see the very worst wasn't going to happen economically," said Chris Hooker-Haring, dean of admissions at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, where costs this year are $45,430. "It allowed people to calm down a bit and not feel the deep uncertainty that they may have been feeling last fall."

Freshmen loss ranged from less than 1 percent at the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College to 9 percent at St. Joseph's and La Salle University.

La Salle's loss, the largest in recent history, was up from the norm of 5 to 6 percent, said John Dolan, vice president of admission and enrollment services.

But the school, which charges $43,478 this year, still brought in its largest class since 1980 - 956 freshmen. Expecting a tougher year because of the poor economy, the university made a push for more commuter students, doubling their freshman total to 200.

"Of all the strategies we employed, that was a breakthrough," Dolan said. "We have held on to our commuter students."

Dolan, who has been in the admissions business for 25 years, described the year as the toughest he has had.

"I'm not surprised to see our melt jump. There's an anxiety and a nervousness that, generally, across the board, I've never dealt with," he said.

In appealing for more financial aid, "people were bringing in foreclosure notices, tax records. A woman brought her sales report from a real estate company. She just had one closing in the past 12 months," he said.

Average family income for the 3,328-student body at La Salle dropped 9 percent, or $7,817, to less than $80,000, a more precipitous one-year decline than Dolan had ever seen.

"It was like a tsunami," he said.

The 9 percent melt at St. Joseph's, where costs are $45,514, was up from 7 percent last year.

"We were very pleased with where we ended up," said Maureen Mathis, executive director of undergraduate admissions and marketing.

She credited a campuswide committee's effort to bring together all the services offered to new students, and to make sure everyone worked to smooth their transition during the summer.

"We held anti-melt meetings for everyone on campus to learn about all the things students are supposed to do, so that any office could become a one-stop shop or any office could get a student to the correct person to speak to," Mathis said. "We had coaches, administrators, office assistants, faculty members, deans who attended sessions and presented."

Other schools, including Rowan and Arcadia Universities and Gwynedd Mercy, Neumann, and Chestnut Hill Colleges, noted less melt than in other years.

Rowan, a state school in New Jersey where charges for an in-state student are $21,192, lost 6.7 percent of its freshmen this year, down from 7.4 percent the year before. Albert Betts, director of admissions, said students who had made deposits were probably more serious this year about their choice.

"It has been a common practice in recent years for students to make multiple deposits at several institutions so that they could delay their final decision beyond the May 1 deadline, even though they would then forfeit the deposits made to the schools they did not choose to attend," he said. "One would guess the current economy has made multiple deposits a luxury many families can no longer afford."

At Neumann, officials cited the school's cost - $31,198 in tuition, fees, and room and board, which it aims to keep lower than many other area private schools.

"I do believe that affordability is going to be the new buzzword in the new economy we're in," said Dennis Murphy, vice president for enrollment and student affairs.

Most schools contacted said their melt had been the same or close to it. In addition to Penn, Villanova, Swarthmore, Widener, and Muhlenberg, they included Temple University, Ursinus and Bryn Mawr Colleges, and the University of Delaware.

While admissions officials remained concerned about the year ahead, some cited positive signs.

Muhlenberg got more than 14,000 inquiries from high school seniors, up more than 1,000 from last year, Hooker-Haring said.

"That may signal that the marketplace is feeling a little more confident about the economy and that they can put higher-cost private colleges at least back on the exploration list," he said.

Villanova reported a rise in visitors to campus this year. About 13,000 came through this summer, up from 10,000 the summer before, said Merritt, the enrollment dean.