Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | January 20, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 7 W Dean College, Franklin 83% 44% Fitchburg State University 87% 23% Worcester State University 78% 19% Framingham State University 73% 9% Nichols College, Dudley 82% 8% Anna Maria College, Paxton 74% 3% Assumption College, Worcester 81% 2% College of the Holy Cross, Worcester 38% 2% Clark University, Worcester 59% -5% Becker College, Worcester 66% -16% Worcester Polytechnic Institute 42% -21% CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS AVERAGE 69% 6% MASSACHUSETTS AVERAGE 60% 3% 2018-19 10-year School acceptance rate % change Acceptance rates at some Central Massachusetts colleges have increased 10 percentage points in the last 10 years. Acceptance rates Dean College, Franklin 4,854 192% Becker College, Worcester 3,916 101% Clark University, Worcester 7,687 80% Framingham State University 5,706 71% Worcester Polytechnic Institute 10,584 68% Anna Maria College, Paxton 3,177 56% Nichols College, Dudley 2,435 23% Worcester State University 4,076 15% Assumption College, Worcester 4,178 12% College of the Holy Cross, Worcester 7,054 6% Fitchburg State University 3,234 -11% CENTRAL MASS. AVERAGE 5,173 45% MASSACHUSETTS AVERAGE 8,149 38% 2018-19 10-year School applications % change Nine colleges in Central Massachusetts have seen at least double-digit percentage growth in the number of student applications in the past decade. College applications Notes: Data is from most recent year available. Includes four-year colleges, primarily offering undergraduate pro- grams, based in Central Massachusetts. Dean says its most recent class should be 474, with a 10-year drop of 8%. Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Worcester Polytechnic Institute 1,276 38% Worcester State University 891 28% College of the Holy Cross, Worcester 868 16% Dean College, Franklin 478 9% Assumption College, Worcester 553 7% Clark University, Worcester 582 6% Framingham State University 767 6% Nichols College, Dudley 355 1% Fitchburg State University 715 -8% Anna Maria College, Paxton 318 -15% Becker College, Worcester 304 -44% CENTRAL MASS. AVERAGE 646 7% MASSACHUSETTS AVERAGE 795 6% 2018-19 10-year School enrollment % change First-year enrollment is up at eight of 11 Central Massachusetts colleges in the past decade. First-year enrollment Latham doesn't see such challenges improving any time soon, either. Aer all, he said, today's declining high school graduates are tomorrow's declining graduate student population. "I don't have a lot of faith that higher education is going to endure as it stands today," he said. Admissions offices are also working to better appeal to tech-savvy high schoolers, who are more likely to want to explore their potential college on platforms like Twitter or YouTube. Ad- missions officers said they've emphasized email and text communications with students and targeted advertising. "Our toolbox tends to get bigger and bigger," said Ann McDermott, the admissions director at the College of the Holy Cross. Still, colleges aren't giving up on more traditional tactics, like attending high school fairs, holding interviews, sending mailers or encouraging campus visits. "I've been in this profession now for 20 years," said Shayna Eddy, Framing- ham State University's director of under- graduate admissions. "As much as things have changed, things have definitely remained the same." Holy Cross, for instance, still has a committee review each application – between 6,000 and 7,000 most years. Clark University has two people reach each application, even as the number of applications the school receives has risen 80% in the past decade. "It's a lot of human resource hours," said Meredith Twombly, Clark's vice president of admissions and financial aid. Fast-moving trends e last decade has had few gentle slopes in admissions trends. WPI, Clark and Dean College in Franklin all saw their annual applica- tions rise more than 3,000 in the past decade, according to the U.S. Depart- ment of Education. Seven of 11 Central Massachusetts colleges analyzed for this report had ei- ther double-digit increases or decreases in first-year enrollment. Nichols College in Dudley – where applications are up 23% for the decade, but first-year enrollment is down 9% – has been working to encourage more students to apply as early-admissions students. ose cases used to account for just one out of 10 applicants but today is half, said William Boffi, Nichols' vice president for enrollment. Early-admissions students are more likely to enroll, so Nichols has been working to get more of them. It offers a $1,500 early-acceptance grant, holds an early-acceptance program and will accept students before the end of the August heading into their senior year. WPI's number of freshmen grew 41% over the decade, all while becoming far more selective. Worcester State University grew by 31%. On the other side, Becker and Dean both had first-year drops of more than 40%, according to federal data. Becker has purposefully enrolled fewer students, choosing students the school says have stronger academic qualifications and better chance at success. Becker's retention rate and graduation rate, which have increased, both show that plan has worked well, said Amy Dean, the school's vice president of communications. Five colleges had double-digit increases or decreases in selec- tivity, a measure of how many applicants are accepted. Worcester State is admitting a far greater proportion of appli- cants: 78% as of 2018-'19. Joseph DiCarlo, the school's dean of enrollment and director of admissions, said the school has accepted more students because it wants to reach its enrollment goals at a time when students are applying to far more colleges. Worcester State still emphasizes ad- mitting students who are academically prepared, DiCarlo said. "It's been relatively strategic," he said. A religious component For three Central Massachusetts col- leges – Holy Cross and Assumption, which have both have relatively flat applications numbers, and Anna Maria College – there's another potential complication in recruiting students: their Catholic identities. It's no secret to colleges with religious affiliations that young people today are much less likely to identify with a religion. Students at Holy Cross are required to take a religion course, but it doesn't have to be about Catholicism. e school finds it appeals to those of other faiths who value the same questions around life and purpose, McDermott, the school's admis- sions director, said. Assumption has more oen been asked about what the college's Catholic affiliation means, and it more oen explains about theology or othert course requirements, or on-campus ministry. "Questions about having a meaningful and purposeful life are timeless questions," Mirabile, the vice president for enrollment management, said. At Anna Maria, a prospective student would find it hard to not notice the central role religion plays at the Paxton campus. Each open house begins with a prayer. "We still embrace it," said John Hamel, the school's vice president of enrollment. Another factor has been credited for Anna Maria's rise in popularity: football. Anna Maria started playing the sport in 2009, a year when applications doubled. e team has opened the way for more liveliness on campus, Hamel said. "It creates socialization and fun," Hamel said. "For alumni, they love to come back and reminisce." Meredith Twombly, Clark University

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