Baylor draws record applications despite scandal
Turmoil, national news not deterring high schoolers from eyeing university
Taylor Plata keeps a birthday card from Baylor University next to her bed.
It made her feel wanted and welcomed as she decided between Baylor and Texas A&M University, where her parents attended.
The Houston-area high school senior was aware of the scandals at Baylor from reading the headlines about the investigations, the sexual assaults by football players, the mishandling of the sordid affair by university coaches and administrators. But her faith in the nation’s largest Baptist university as a Christian, caring family was unshaken.
In February, she stuffed a black balloon with green and gold glitter and popped it over the dinner table to reveal to her family that she had decided on Baylor.
Despite the scandal that rocked its campus and resulted in the departure of President and Chancellor Ken Starr, football coach Art Briles and athletic director Ian McCaw, Baylor
this year drew a record high number of freshmen applications. University and guidance counselors attribute the rise to a strong and loyal brand within the state and outreach to potential applicants over the course of their high school years.
About 36,000 students completed freshman applications. Students have until May 1 to make a final admission decision, but the university says it does not believe many admitted students will be deterred from attending Baylor due to concern about sexual assault or personal safety.
“Certainly we wanted to be cognizant of the impact that something like this could have (on application numbers),” said Jennifer Carron, Baylor’s associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment. “But we also know that the mission of Baylor is compelling, and we were working to do our best to get that story out to the students who had already been raising their hands, who had already been building that relationship with us.”
No new strategy
Despite its troubled year, Baylor said it did not overhaul its admissions strategy. Carron said the university made one change connected to the scandal — encouraging employees to be open about investigations into sexual assault at Baylor in conversations with potential applicants and admitted students.
Administrators opened on-campus informational sessions by saying that they’d answer any questions about sexual assault or the federal investigation. But students asked about majors, class size and campus traditions, Carron said. Meanwhile, like in previous years, school representatives canvassed the country, from Honolulu to Miami to the nation’s capitol, talking about Baylor to prospective applicants at high schools and at college fairs.
The strong application numbers defied research from Harvard Business School that found several national media articles covering campus scandals can lower application numbers by 9 percent. One of the researchers’ examples was a Rolling Stone long-form article on hazing and sexual assault at Dartmouth College — dubbed “Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy.” Applications sank 16.5 percent over two years after the scandal. Baylor’s applications rose about 4 percent year over year.
The scandal could have still hobbled the increase Baylor saw — from a sharper lift to the more modest rise, said Jonathan Smith, a former College Board employee who was one of the Harvard paper’s authors. Universities over time have gotten smarter with public relations and outreach, Smith said, which also may have negated the effect of the scandal.
“Students have a way of putting a lot of weight on their decisions on things that are right in front of them, big pieces of news or social media,” he said.
Loyalty runs deep
Carron said the university was aware of the research on scandal and application numbers. But she felt confident Baylor would receive a steady stream of applicants because it had a pipeline of interested potential applicants it had contacted for years.
Houston private college counselor Diane Overman said students she advises considered campus sexual assault but ultimately were attracted to Baylor’s religious focus and reputation in the state.
Jerry Daniels, a Richmond private college counselor, said his students appreciated Baylor’s academics, the campus feel and financial aid packages.
This year, he said, his clients rationalized away the scandal as sequestered in athletics. He said a drop in student interest could come next year.
“The kids are looking at what’s directly in front of them, and parents are operating under the Baylor they knew when they were in college,” he said. “No one’s paying a whole lot of attention to recent news and to the condition of the administration.”
The university’s reputation runs deep, especially for students whose parents attended Baylor, he said. “Their lives have been green and gold since they were in the crib.”
Another deadline is looming for high-school students, who have until May 1 to decide where to attend. Some students accepted to Baylor say they are talking about the year’s news with their families as they consider where to enroll.
Briana Martinez, a Lufkin-area student, and her parents talked about personal safety and sexual assault after she was accepted to Baylor. At one point, her parents said they could not see her attending.
“Hearing it from my dad, it brought (Baylor) down a notch,” she said.
Still, even as the news was unfolding, she said, she was drawn to Baylor’s name recognition and alumni network.
Price matters
For Kathy Tra, 18, of Cedar Hill, Twitter posts about the university’s handling of sexual assault made her uneasy as she made her choice.
She said she sought a strong university athletic culture and said reports of rape from Baylor’s football players were troubling.
Both Tra and Martinez said sexual assault at Baylor wasn’t the sole factor driving their decisions. Like every year, the private school’s tuition and fees played a role. Baylor’s sticker price for next year is $56,628.
“It all came back down to price,” Martinez said.