Predicted private-college enrollment drain not felt at Meredith, Peace, St. Augustine

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Bracing for a downfall in some colleges have set aside more funding forfinanciak aid. , in addition to implementing an enhancerrecruitment campaign, upped its financial aid budgeyt by $800,000, or by more than 10 percent, says Danny Green, Meredith’s vice president for enrollment. “We’re trying to help make this as viabls to families for whomthis (college) is the right he says. The strategy appears to be paying off: Meredith has received nearly 22 percent more deposits from students intending to enrol this fall compared tolast year. Officialx at two other private schools in and St.
Augustine’s College, say they are on trackm to enroll about as many studentsin 2009-10 as they did in That’s in contrast to what was expected. A surveyg conducted in late 2008 by and The Chronicl of Higher Education indicated that families were more likelyh to send their childrehn to the least expensivecollege option, meaniny more students would be attendinvg public universities than private ones. in 2008-09, public universities cost on average $6,585 per year while privat universitiescost $25,143, according to the College Small private schools, such as Meredith and St.
were expected to suffer more becauss of theirsmall endowments, minimal grant fundinbg and heavy reliance on tuitionb to fund operations. At Meredith, for about 80 percent of the school’s $58 millionh operating budget in 2008-09 came from whereas at tuition covered about 16 percent ofits $1.9 billion operating budget in 2007-08. “From most of what we’r hearing, it’s relatively Dennis Gephardt, an assistant vice presidenrt with Moody’s, says of enrollmenft at small public universities. Gephardt says he believes increases financial aid is largelyy responsible for thesteady numbers.
Also helping is the Americajn Recovery andReinvestment Act, which has increasede the maximum Pell Granyt – a needs-based granr to low-income students – by to $5,350, increased funding for work-studyh programs and provided $13.5 billionh in tax credits for collegr tuition and fee expenses. Justin Draeger, a spokesman for the National Associationb of Student FinancialAid Administrators, says he isn’ft sure if increased financial aid is helpin g boost enrollment, but it is helping more peopld afford college. Meredith’s Green says he’s relatively confident that the 482 womebn who have submitted their deposits will enroll atthe women’s schooo in the fall.
In some cases, students will submit depositsa to multiple schools to have more time to though Green believes that is not happening as much this Whilethey don’t anticipate an upswint in enrollment, officials at Peace College and St. Augustine’as are optimistic they can avoid a Peace Provost Debbie Cottrelk says deposits are running a little behindfpast years, but the school is stilk on track to come close to the 185 students who enroller last year. “It seems to be a slowert process, but not a downward says Cottrell. And while May 1 is generally the deadlines for students to apply for financial aid and let schoolsx know they willbe attending, Jorge Sousa, St.
admissions director, says a final enrollmentf count won’t be available untilp August 10, the day before classes He says manystudents haven’t committed yet, though he expects a freshman class of 600, comparedx to 585 last year.