How much of this decrease can really be attributed to the FAFSA? I know some are claiming that FAFSA is entirely responsible, and the DOE does hold some accountability and schools should hop on the class action against the DOE, but the school was noticing enrollment decline previous to this. What percentage is truly on the FAFSA vs the decline seen in years past.
How much of this decrease can really be attributed to the FAFSA?
It was a contributing factor. How much is hard to tell. Some students who were uncertain about financial aid chose the safe path of lower tuition state universities, such as Indiana University.
Enrollment up at IU campuses; Bloomington sets record for overall enrollment
https://news.iu.edu/live/news/37818-enrollment-up-at-iu-campuses-bloomington-sets-record
Fall Head Count
2020 3136
2021 2939 -197
2022 2964 +25
2023 2868 -96
2024 2598 -270
4-year loss -538
Fall Head Count
2020 3136
2021 2939 -197
2022 2964 +25
2023 2868 -96
2024 2598 -270
4-year loss -538
2015: 4544
2024: 2598
-1946: loss of 43%
Going of the numbers of the last 4 years, it seems like we can attribute around at least 40 students worth of enrollment lost due to the FAFSA. Seems insignificant, but for small institutions, those 40 students are quite precious.
With a yoy drop of 270 in enrollment (nearly 10%!!), no one in university marketing and admissions should be getting promotions, recognitions, etc. This is awful performance. If someone wants to blame FAFSA, please keep in mind that there are private universities (like mine) whose freshmen enrollment and overall enrollment increased yoy. There were strategic ways to work around the FAFSA issues that apparently Valpo chose not to follow.
My hope is that Valpo realizes that this is Priority #1, Priority #2, and Priority #3.
Yep, the numbers are abysmal. The longitudinal data shows the biggest losses in both CAS and COE.
- Arstci Fall Total Enrollment dropped from 1014 (2023) to 920 (2024)
- Engineering Fall Total Enrollment dropped from 392 (2023) to 340 (2024)
- (while CONHP saw a smaller yoy drop of about 20, and CoB the only increase of about 30)
The overall loss of 270 in enrollment continues to also reshape the student body, as we continue to lose admits mainly from the top of the pile. Historically many of our strongest students tended to be in CAS/CC and Engineering where they would come from out of state for the Valpo reputation in either humanities and engineering, whereas CONHP and CoB have always tended to be more local/pragmatic/commuter. Today, VU is losing the former pipelines, as the uni focuses ever more on trying to cut programs and poach students from NWI community colleges into whatever degree and credential programs are left.
I continue to believe that (more than any fluctuation in FAFSA etc), VU sent itself into an enrollment tailspin by far too blithely giving up its standing and reputation as a good/reputable 4-yr private university. In terms of location, unfortunately much of the rest of the Midwest and the nation consider NW Indiana the armpit of America in terms of post-industrial grunge... Given this, it was GOLD that for so long you could say "Valpo" and people would nonetheless perk up and go, 'Oh! Valparaiso's a good school! Aren't you near Notre Dame too?" But that is precisely what VU has squandered these last 5-10 years. Now we still struggle with the geographic perception hurdle, but to invoke the university "Valpo" gets you kind of a chagrined 'Oh.... I heard things have been tough' because most people think of us now as some dicey operation that's HELOC-ed all its academic equity and is trying to raise child support by pawning stuff from the garage. If you're a top-of-your class student either from local in Valpo or regional in Chicago or national in Sacramento, and you want to study Chemical Engineering or Political Science, why go to Valpo if you can go to a 'better school'?
Marketing is the schools largest weakness. The darn engineering school is nationally ranked for christ sake, and yet, there has been almost zero effort to market the engineering school. A not so insignificant contingent of the engineering students are the athletes for Christ sake. Valpo has some gems, but rather than show them off, they continue to act like Gollum in his cave hoarding his "precious" this exact mindset partially led to the downfall of the law program and the beginning of VUs troubles. Although it is a taboo subject, student accommodations are also worth noting. Many have mentioned, here and even on the old forum many years ago, that the dorms are wholly inadequate. I can go onto many Facebook groups, and even reddit, to find that people desire to live anywhere but on campus because of the dorms. If you want to build a quality campus life experience, you got to start with the place where students are going to call home for 8 months. Hopefully with recent controversial developments, we get some information from the school about how that aspect is going to improve.
However, it is worth noting that the current administration is attempting to right the ship. Access programs that target CC students who hold up high academic standing around the Chicagoland Area is a major plus. While not guaranteed to turn a positive, they are programs that get VUs name in the mouth of students. These CC students are expected to be in high academic standing at their CC institutions so the prestige doesn't get sacrificed in the process of recruitment. The Access College is also something not seen all too much at other institutions. Frankly, I really think an advertising campaign will serve the school quite well. You need to get information about your programs to the general public and the school website doesn't generate interest.
While further advertising and promotion is likely a good idea, I am not at all optimistic about how Valpo would approach any new advertising (as well as other forms of promotion with prospective students). Yes, Valpo needs to promote the university - but it needs to EQUALLY promote the unique value propositions of each College. Further, the Colleges themselves need to deeply engage in the recruitment process, with a faculty or senior staff member in that College personally meeting with any prospective student for that College when they visit.
While further advertising and promotion is likely a good idea, I am not at all optimistic about how Valpo would approach any new advertising (as well as other forms of promotion with prospective students). Yes, Valpo needs to promote the university - but it needs to EQUALLY promote the unique value propositions of each College. Further, the Colleges themselves need to deeply engage in the recruitment process, with a faculty or senior staff member in that College personally meeting with any prospective student for that College when they visit.
This shouldn't be a crazy new idea. If Valpo is different because of their small, intimate, class sizes. Why aren't students meeting with a staff member. As for advertising, that ranked engineering program is something a commercial can eat up. With the new OTA broadcasting the MVC has recently struck a deal for, the school could build a new commercial campaign as the MVC puts school commercials on their broadcasts. Hosmer mentioned the D1 athletics with an engineering degree, why not use that as well.
Or how about this, get some alumni testimonials. Valpo has a prominent alumni network with many heavy hitters. Why are they not involved. Or how about unbanning Valpo Schools from the property because one kid decided to ask about the law program. Get the local school systems to come to tours like in years past. I remember going on MULTIPLE Valpo tours during my time in the VCS system.
It seems like the mindset is "sports will save us" which is never the student recruitment process you want. A lot of the marketing undertakings and branding outreach has been on the sports side. While sports is a path foreword in getting your name out there, sports is not a sacred relic. This is not to say I am displeased with the school for making sports a marketing tool. I am quite pleased every time I see some new event that is sports related, or a happy article detailing some cool event (much like the Autograph signing). Getting the community back into the school and invested in what is going on is going to pay dividends.
I agree that the enrollment decline is very troubling. However, I would like to see comparative data from VU's closest peers in order gauge how much of this is due to challenges shared across this spectrum of private universities vs. challenges unique to Valpo.
That said, the drops in both CAS and Engineering suggest to me that overall marketing is an area in need of great improvement.
Also, to what degree does all the negative news -- ranging from program closures and faculty layoffs to the proposed art sale -- start to have a cumulative effect messaging that the university in a bad financial state, prompting an accompanying hesitancy of college shoppers to avoid schools sending off that impression in view of the growing numbers of college and university closures.
On Lutheran-affiliated new student enrollment: It looks like a little over 6% to me, not 5%. That said, I think that many a comparable small to medium, private university in the Midwest could get to the level almost by accident. Clearly there's a need for stronger recruiting appeals to Lutheran high schools if VU wishes to maintain its Lutheran identity.
So Valpo has identified the following institutions as 'peer institutions.' I was curious to see their enrollment trends so I (admittedly very quickly on College Tuition Compare) looked up their enrollment trends.
Notes:
-Whether these 'peer institutions' really are the best comparisons is a good question (some of them like Gonzaga seem aspirational as peers, and others like Quinnipiac just seem to be in awfully different demographic/geographic contexts), but I'm just going with these as reasonable comparisons since for whatever reason Valpo says these are institutional peers.
-This does not at all take into account grad enrollment for either Valpo or the peers, which is probably for the best since some of these places have minimal grad enrollment whereas others have huge grad student enrollments on par or even exceeding undergrad numbers.
Enrollment Trends
The data easily available roughly covered a decade, so I have pasted their enrollment stats for 'total undergrad enrollment' from that span (from the 2013-2014 year to the 2022-23 year):
- Valparaiso University (Valpo, IN) - from 3,251 to 2,349 (or actually 2,142 if using the most recent 2024 data)
- Baldwin Wallace (Berea, OH) - from 3,425 to 2,744
- Bellarmine U (Louisville, KY) - from 2,593 to 2,343
- Belmont U (Nashville, TN) - from 5,406 to 7,384
- Bethel U (St Paul, MN) - from 3,280 to 2,592
- Biola U (La Mirada, CA) - from 4,331 to 3,499
- Bradley U (Peoria, IL) - from 4,588 to 4,143
- Butler U (Indianapolis, IN) - from 4,051 to 4,427
- Creighton U (Omaha, NE) - from 4,076 to 4,290
- Drake U (Des Moines, IA) - from 3,383 to 2,835
- Elon U (Elon, NC) - from 5,599 to 6,337
- Gonzaga U (Spokane, WA) - from 4,896 to 5,084
- John Carroll U (U Heights, OH) - from 3,040 to 2,417
- Lipscomb U (Nashville TN) - from 2,890 to 2,955
- Misericordia U (Dallas, PA) - from 2,417 to 1,776
- Quinnipiac U (Hamden, CT) - from 6,542 to 6,073
- Samford U (Birmingham, AL) - from 3,013 to 3,672
- Seattle Pacific U (Seattle, WA) - from 3,366 to 2,432
- Seattle U (Seattle, WA) - from 4,608 to 4,046
- Union U (Jackson, TN) - from 2,8329 to 1,900
- U of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI) - from 2,888 to 3,156
- U. of Evansville (Evansville, IL) - from 2,477 to 1,717
- U of Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN) - from 4,162 to 3,715
- U of Portland (Portland, OR) - from 3,494 to 3,390
- U. of Redlands (Redlands, CA) - from 3,607 to 2,313
- U. of Scranton (Scranton, PA) - from 3,942 to 3,593
- U. of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) - from 6,321 to 5,906
- Xavier U (Cincinnati, OH) - from 4,620 to 4,852
While some of these peers have seen decreases and we are not entirely alone in that, clearly there are others who have stayed steady or even grown.
And among those experiencing decreases, it does seem to me that Valpo's decrease is among the very steepest. Considering we were in the low 3,000s a decade ago, to lose ~1,000 students is a LOT...
@vuindiana Wowza--kudos on this little research report...thank you for hunting down this very helpful info!
A couple of points in response:
First, I'd suggest out of fairness (is that the right word?) to VU due to the FAFSA debacle, that we stick with 2022-23 as comparison years for all.
Second, you're on target by not including grad school numbers, which would probably look even worse for VU given that its Law School enrollment in 2013-14 was reported at some 500+ students (I just checked).
Third, yuppers, that's a very steep enrollment decline, in plain numbers and comparatively so. During the years I've been on this board (including the previous site), many of us have taken issue with VU's marketing. Something isn't working. Even with some of the bad press, residence hall issues, etc., I have to think that the quality of the undergraduate programs in all of the colleges of the university somehow isn't being sufficiently communicated.
For unless the quality of teaching has taken a nosedive during the last decade -- and I have no reason to believe it has done so -- one of the hallmarks of a VU undergraduate education has been small classes and very dedicated teachers, as well as providing a collegiate experience of participating in extracurricular activities and forging lasting friendships -- and resulting in a degree that can help many students take a step up the ladder to good jobs and graduate/professional school opportunities.
While VU may not be for everyone, I'm guessing there are many young folks who would've had a better overall experience at VU than the schools they chose. But something isn't getting through.
@david81 That sour taste of the law school is fresh in people's minds still. Same with the bad press after bad press. Hopefully those days are behind the institution as the major bad press generation tool was just resolved. VU needs someone in their marketing department. Hosmer and Small were/are marketing minds and that has shown in the media that has been generated on the athletics side and proved dividends when looking at the home opener and the crowd turnout. The academics side needs a "Hosmer" per se.
@david81 That sour taste of the law school is fresh in people's minds still. Same with the bad press after bad press. Hopefully those days are behind the institution as the major bad press generation tool was just resolved. VU needs someone in their marketing department. Hosmer and Small were/are marketing minds and that has shown in the media that has been generated on the athletics side and proved dividends when looking at the home opener and the crowd turnout. The academics side needs a "Hosmer" per se.
The closing of the law school was a deeply painful chapter in VU's history. Although keeping it open very likely would've taxed other academic units of needed funds to pay for the generous scholarships necessary for the law school to be competitive for applicants, its demise was a sad and awful blow nonetheless. I do understand that.
But VU's undergraduate programs have never dependent upon the presence of the law school, financially or reputation-wise. And that's why I question whether the bachelor's degree offerings and the university experience are being effectively marketed.
