New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Colleges see rising admissions despite pandemic
Local colleges are seeing record applications — despite a pandemic that threatened to fumble admissions.
Schools in and near the area, several of which are releasing admissions decisions this month, shared preliminary application figures with Hearst Connecticut Media for this unusual year, entrenched completely in the COVID-19 pandemic.
And in spite of concerns that the current public health crisis would hinder the admissions process, these universities have fared well, with some seeing applications balloon to the schools’ highest levels yet.
But topline numbers don’t tell the full story. Fewer applicants submitted financial aid forms this year in Connecticut, and the number of first-generation, Black and Hispanic students enrolled in United States colleges this year also decreased, according to Inside Higher Ed.
“Once we got into the summer,” said Corry Unis, the vice president of enrollment at Fairfield University, “and it was apparent we weren’t going to flip the switch and return to normal, I think all of us in the enrollment world were a little concerned how students were going to go through this process with much less access to college campuses than previous years.”
Fairfield saw a record number of applicants this cycle by a slight margin. Applications increased about 1 percent this year, including 12,665 students seeking to enroll as first years. Those figures reflect a trend of annual growth at Fairfield for the last several cycles, the school said.
The deadline to apply was in January, so Fairfield does not expect to see that number rise. The school’s final batch of regular decisions came out Friday.
Fairfield doesn’t require standardized tests for admissions — a policy that predated the pandemic.
Overall, the school said it’s pleased with its continued ability to attract students despite the circumstances. Unis said that, like many other institutions, Fairfield experienced a slower start to the admissions funnel with a decrease in early-action and early-decision applications but made up the deficit down the road.
“Where we pulled ahead was in the regular decision round,” he said.
At the same time, applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups decreased this year at Fairfield, which is in line with state and national trends.
In Connecticut, Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, applications declined by almost 9 percent as of January. Across the United States, fewer than two in five high school seniors have applied so far for financial aid — a drop of more than 9 percent from this time last year, according to Education Week.
At the University of Connecticut, more than 38,000 students have applied so far to the undergraduate program, according to the school’s count. UConn began notifying applicants of their status earlier this month and expects more applications to come as deadlines approach for regional campus and transfer admissions, it said in a statement.
The school also said that this year’s applicant pool is its largest and most diverse. UConn’s previous applications record was 35,980 for fall 2016, and about 45 percent of this cycle’s applicants to UConn Storrs, the system’s main campus, identify as minorities. The university did, however, see a decrease in applications from international students.
UConn made the SAT and ACT admissions tests optional for the first time this year, and representatives for the school said that could be cause for the increase in applications.
“The test-optional policy has opened more opportunities for the university to identify and admit students based on their unique talents and abilities,” Nathan Fuerst, UConn’s vice president for enrollment planning and management, said in a statement. “I think a lot of students who might otherwise have counted themselves out of the process are this year taking a look at UConn and realizing they do have a lot to offer by way of their accomplishments and their potential for success here.”
UConn won’t require the tests for three years, during which it will study the impact on student-body success and diversity. Though the university was previously considering the pilot program, the pandemic exacerbated difficulties that could make scores unequal, such as varied access to test preparation and conducive testing environments.
The trend continues beyond UConn: More than half of colleges that confer bachelor’s degrees, or 1,240 out of 2,330 schools, have made traditional admissions tests optional, according to Education Week.
In contrast to Fairfield and UConn, the University of Bridgeport has seen a slight dip in undergraduate applications. In context, however, that follows years of distress for the university, which spent $8.3 million more than it made and burned through $8.7 million of its modest endowment in 2018-19, according to filings recently made public.
UB is still accepting applications for programs not yet enrolled to capacity. Interim President Stephen Healy said they expect more to come as degree completion applications for online and in-person school trickle in on a rolling basis, and students who applied to newly test-optional schools like UConn hear back and consider other options in the state.
Meanwhile, the college has seen a significant increase in applicants from abroad. That reflects a trend across colleges in the United States, which have seen a 9 percent increase in international applications, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Applications to graduate programs and professional health sciences at UB are on the rise, too, which aligns with what experts have called the ‘Fauci effect’ of more students applying to medical school.
Application trends among students from minority and low-income backgrounds did not change at UB over last year’s admissions cycle.
Like Fairfield, UB has also been test-optional since before the pandemic.
“We did so because research literature, national experience and our own internal studies show that the SAT is not a reliable predictor of student performance,” said the school.
At Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, close to 12,500 students have applied to join the class of 2025, according to Pamela Pillo, the executive director of undergraduate admissions. That represents an increase of 2.7 percent over last fall, and 6.5 percent over the year prior. SHU, which is test-optional, expects that number to rise as its admissions team continues reviewing applications on a rolling basis.
Those percentages are part of a trend of continued growth for more than a decade, said Pillo. She credits that in part to SHU’s new academic programs, including engineering, sports communication, health professions and nursing, as well as new residence halls and learning facilities. The university has also averaged a 99.5 percent career placement rate for the past couple of years, according to SHU’s numbers.
And though Pillo doesn’t attribute the rise in applications to the pandemic or related economic crisis, COVID-19 still transformed traditional college admissions.
“This is a unique year,” said Pillo.