Colleges Expect Lower Enrollment - is Valpo in D.S.

[setshot]

A recent article in the NYT (01-10-13) indicates that tuition dependent schools and lower rated universities are in d.s.As Moody's indicates,lower family incomes is a major reason for this decline. So, D3 for athletics is the way VU should go. D1 athletics are too high a price for VU. Wake up VU. D3 is the way to go. NOW!

[historyman]

You can blow that whistle all you want but I have yet to see you get any other takers for going Div.III.

[valpotx]

Our athletic budget at D-1 is in no way going to cause a financial shortfall for VU.  I believe it is around $5m?  That is nothing compared to other costs of operation.  The economy is picking up, and good schools like VU will be fine.  Give it a rest

[Valposter]

In a shocking development, the 12 private catholic schools expected to form the new 12-team catholic basketball conference (the Big East Catholic 7 plus Dayton, Xavier, Butler, St. Louis and Creighton) have acknowledged this alarming and unpreventable trend and have reluctantly decided to break away from their existing conferences to form a new DIII conference instead.     

[crusadermoe]

You have to give Setshot his due if you look at the black and white financial realities and VU's current enrollment trends.

D-1 can be sustained only if you CRANK UP an aggressive growth strategy.   It is a stated goal to reach 6,000  but you have to go "all in" for several years using all of your tools.   More importantly you have to grow your overall enrollment at 20% next year and 10% addtionally for many years to get to 6,000.

Basketball should at least pay its own way from ticket sales after all of our success.     Valpo lost a LOT of time from 1998 to 2010 in terms of capitalizing on the Sweet 16.   

[VULB#62]

You have to give Setshot his due if you look at the black and white financial realities and VU's current enrollment trends.

D-1 can be sustained only if you CRANK UP an aggressive growth strategy.   It is a stated goal to reach 6,000  but you have to go "all in" for several years using all of your tools.   More importantly you have to grow your overall enrollment at 20% next year and 10% addtionally for many years to get to 6,000.

Basketball should at least pay its own way from ticket sales after all of our success.     Valpo lost a LOT of time from 1998 to 2010 in terms of capitalizing on the Sweet 16.

I agree.  Positive exposure needs to be leveraged while the iron is still hot. And nothing says positive exposure like a successful athletic program.  The administration needs to prime that pump by visibly investing in it -- not waiting passively for the donations to roll in.

[vu72]

First off the basic premise of the article has nothing to do with Valpo.  "A recent article in the NYT (01-10-13) indicates that tuition dependent schools and lower rated universities are in d.s."

Every school except the Ivies rely on tuition to some extent.  Valpo grew nicely last year inspite of these facts, and have real pros running this area.  Relax.  Are some lower quality universities going under?  Absolutely.

[VULB#62]

On a related issue, USAToday just published an article on the 150 Best 2013 Value Colleges based on the release  by the Princeton Review.  It's a numbers game  tied to the delta between tuition and net cost as reduced by financial grants, and, unfortunately, Valpo did not get included.  I'm disappointed.  We could have used that promotionally.   Here are the IL and IN schools that were included:

Northwestern University   
The University of Chicago   
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign   

DePauw University   
Indiana University -- Bloomington   
Purdue University -- West Lafayette   
University of Notre Dame   
Wabash College   

If sorted by state, regionally the slant is toward the coastal regions and very heavy toward the northeast and California.  There are two schools each from Ohio, Iowa and WI and only one from Michigan (U of M).  California alone has 19.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/02/05/princeton-review-best-value-colleges-tuition-debt/1890903/
Best Value Colleges strive to cut tuition sticker shock

Here's the link to the actual 150:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/02/05/princeton-review-best-value-colleges-interactive/1890969/

[vuweathernerd]

notre lame a value college? i have a hard time buying that one...

[VULB#62]

Has nothing to do with reasonable initial cost.  It's the numbers -- all of the Ivy League schools are value colleges.  Reason:  incredible financial aid to offset the incredible tuition costs. ND has beau coup $$ for financial aid I would bet.

[valpopal]

I thought today's message from President Heckler might be interesting to those reading about enrollment:

"Just six months ago we welcomed our largest incoming class of first-year students to our campus since 1983. Our spring enrollment is the largest in 31 years and our undergraduate spring enrollment is the largest in 20 years. Enrollment in our graduate school this spring is the highest in history."

http://www.valpo.edu/president/e-news/february2013_message.php

[crusader1897]

On a semi-similar note: anybody know exactly how many people are enrolled this academic year vs. last year? I noticed the page where I get it from (http://www.valpo.edu/registrar/statistics.php) STILL hasn't been updated (it was updated in December 2011 with the 2011-2012 numbers). Anybody know what's up with that?

[agibson]

On a semi-similar note: anybody know exactly how many people are enrolled this academic year vs. last year? I noticed the page where I get it from (http://www.valpo.edu/registrar/statistics.php) STILL hasn't been updated (it was updated in December 2011 with the 2011-2012 numbers). Anybody know what's up with that?

Huh - funny.

The most recent ones I've seen are the ones Heckler alludes to, above, and I think are basically official.  I'm not sure how they're officially distributed.  The overall number of students enrolled for spring 2013 is apparently 3,975 - the highest number since 1982 (and up almost 6% from a year ago).  For undergrads, it's 2,890: up almost seven percent, and the highest number in 21 years.

Early numbers for next fall seem to be encouraging.

(The "official" numbers from last fall, as far as I can tell, were 4,081 students overall, and 2,983 undergrads.  The overall numbers are 20-30 year highs.  The undergrad numbers the highest since 2004.  And the freshmen-to-sophomore retention number, which was a matter of discussion, was up significantly to 86.5%.)