Do we have information that they aren't recruiting all Lutheran schools across the country?
No, it's not clear to me where the Admissions Office recruits either through email/phone/mailer communications to high schools or through physical visits to high schools around the country. It's not like the Admissions Office publishes a list of their recruiting travel schedule to the rest of the staff or to the faculty, so I'm not sure who actually knows. I looked on the website to see if I was just missing something. But although there are various options for website visitors to register themselves for an on-campus visit, there's no indication of a schedule for VU's outward recruiting to college fairs and high schools. Mystery.
True. All you can look at is results. The trend in Lutherans is DOWN 80% to 120+ last fall. I may be off by a bit. But the drop is massive. We have anecdotal comments on Fort Wayne and from another big former feeder high school of 5-8 students where VU has whiffed.
True. All you can look at is results. The trend in Lutherans is DOWN 80% to 120+ last fall. I may be off by a bit. But the drop is massive. We have anecdotal comments on Fort Wayne and from another big former feeder high school of 5-8 students where VU has whiffed.
Well, when it comes to recent year-over-year trends, it's hard to say. Sure, we might conclude that Valpo lost a bunch of Lutherans this last year or few because of not trying to recruit them hard enough. But we don't know for certain that Admissions didn't try.... and there seem plenty of other possible reasons, like the strong possibility that Lutheran (like non-Lutheran) parents just feel leery of sending their kid to a private university that's been obviously struggling and cutting student support services and academic programs left and right for the last several years.
Well, now we talking in a more general way about higher ed enrollment. I suggest we take this important but well-worn topic to the enrollment thread. It's certainly not "Valpo News" anymore. See you there.
