Did you know that some DePauw students traveled to Kansas City this fall break to learn sustainable methods for producing food? Check out our multimedia video online!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2012
Indiana’s Oldest College Newspaper
College admissions see decline in applicants By ABBY MARGULIS news@thedepauw.com
from about 50 to 41 percent in the last decade, National Association for College Admission Counseling says. Meyers says this is true for DePauw. “The last couple years the yield has solidified at 20 percent,” Meyer said. “Personally, I think the yield should be higher.” DePauw last saw a high yield in 2009 when it was at 25 percent.
Admissions | cont’d on pg. 4 ON BERS EASE M U N ECR THE D
more than
40%
of private universities have reported a decline in applicants.
321 number of applications dropped within the last two years.
20% of the students who actually enroll to DePauw after they apply.
GRAPHIC BY LIZZIE HINEMAN
In her senior year of high school Traci Balz, now a DePauw junior from Plainfield, Ind., knew three things when she applied to colleges: she wanted to be close to family, small class sizes and a good education at a cost she could afford. Balz also looked at Indiana University and IUPUI, but chose neither. She knew a DePauw education would give her the best shot to get into grad school. Three years later, Balz knows she made the right decision. “I knew the benefits I would gain from a DePauw education and [that] alumni connections would justify the cost,” Balz said. “I knew by attending DePauw it would help me get into good law schools and help me find a good job.” While Balz chose DePauw, a school more expensive than her other options, many high school students around the country cannot compromise over tuition costs. DePauw — and other liberal arts schools across the nation — are feeling the effects with their higher tuition costs, and scholarships cannot always even the financial playing field. The early decision application deadline, Nov. 1, is approaching next week. DePauw’s applicant numbers have dropped in recent years, following the trend of declining applicant numbers for small liberal arts universities. In a new admission’s season, DePauw hopes to raise its applicant numbers as deadlines are fast approaching. The economy crash in 2008
heightened families concern with the cost of higher education causing small liberal arts colleges to lose applicants while state schools increased. Dan Meyer, vice president of the Office of Admissions, acknowledges the hard economic times. “Families are concerned with how they will be able to afford this education,” Meyer said. Specifically, DePauw’s admission has seen a drop of 321 applicants within the last two years. Many colleges across the nation are seeing a decline in their application numbers, too. Dickinson College lost 224 applicants and Washington and Lee University lost 517 applicants between 2011 and 2012, according to the New York Times. More than 40 percent of private universities have reported a decline in applicants according to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Since 2007, a higher trend and selling point for colleges has been scholarships. A survey conducted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers gathered data from 400 hundred private universities tracking their tuition discounting — 42.8 percent of schools gave discounts to freshman in 2011 in an effort to attract more students. From this same survey, 375 colleges reported space was still available for their current freshman class. Not only are applications down, but the yield is down too. The yield rate is the percentage of students who actually enroll at the school they apply to. This rate has fallen
VOL. 161, ISSUE 16
Anderson Street Construction on time, despite rain By NICOLE DECRISCIO news@thedepauw.com
With Mother Nature’s recent decision to make up for the lack of rain in this summer’s drought, it can be hard to imagine that the construction on Anderson Street will be finished on time. However, Richard Vance, associate vice president of Facilities Management, expects that the street will be open in time for the Dec. 1 deadline. “We are literally 30 days away from opening the street,” he said. Vance anticipates the first base coat of asphalt will be laid at the end of next week. The next stages of the project, which will be completed after the opening of the road, is installing the light posts, planting the trees and building a monument to better the entrance to DePauw. Vance said that the contractor anticipated a few days of inclement weather, and that the recent rainfall has slowed construction down a few days, but not enough to delay the opening. “The contractor would say that they worked as diligently as possible,” Vance said. “From my perspective, there were days where there was not a lot of activity going on on the street itself. You sit back as an observer and ask, ‘Why is that?’” However, Vance did note that the issue was not a lack of manpower, but rather that some supplies were not delivered in a timely manner. “DePauw is truly benefiting from its partnership with the city of Greencastle,” Vance said, despite the setbacks. Yet, the students that are directly impacted by the construction have a slightly different view on the “benefits” of the partnership. Junior Vincent Guzzetta, who works for the ambulance service Putnam County Operation Life, cites a complaint that impacted both
Anderson Street’s progress as of Oct. 25. ISABELLE CHAPMAN / THE DEPAUW the DePauw community and the Greencastle community. “Before they had opened up Bloomington Street, you couldn’t drive the ambulance down that way,” he said. “You had to actually take a roundabout way to respond to calls, which is really frustrating when you’re trying to get to somebody to help them out. An extra minute or two is really frustrating if you are responding to a patient.” Senior David Kunkel, whose room is on Anderson Street, is woken up by the noise nearly every morning. “It hadn’t been too bad,” Kunkel said, “but now they’re starting to use jackhammers.” Kunkel points to a recent morning after pulling an all-nighter, when he needed to sleep. “I was woken up at about 8:30 [a.m.] in the morning, hours before my first class,” he said. “I just couldn’t get back to sleep.” Even without considering the obvious and serious problem of the noise from the construction, Kunkel has concerns about the deadline being met. “I didn’t think that it would take as long as it’s taking, and I don’t think that they’re going to have it done by the projected date of Dec. 1,” he said. Based on the university’s projection, students and community members should be able to access the new and improved Anderson Street by the end of November.