In an era in which universities are expected to draw more and more applicants each year — as if they were Fortune 500 companies being forced to show annual profits — Ursinus College, a liberal arts institution outside Philadelphia, would seem to have little reason to celebrate....
>>>In an era in which universities are expected to draw more and more applicants each year — as if they were Fortune 500 companies being forced to show annual profits — Ursinus College, a liberal arts institution outside Philadelphia, would seem to have little reason to celebrate.
Applicants for this fall’s freshman class have plunged by 1,700 — or nearly a third — when compared with last year at this time.
And yet, Richard DiFeliciantonio, the university’s vice president for enrollment, said on Monday that the drop was not only welcome but deliberate, after a five-year period in which Ursinus saw its applications nearly triple.
“Those numbers aren’t real,” Mr. DiFeliciantonio said from the school’s campus in Collegeville, Pa. “People count anything that moves as an application. Everyone is going up 10 percent every year for 20 years. It’s absurd.”
“At some point,” he added, “the credibility of those numbers is questionable.”
Mr. DiFeliciantonio readily admits that Ursinus, until this year, was happy to let itself be swept up in the admissions race.
**The excerpt above is taken from the NYT article, "A College That's Pleased With Its Drop in Applicants, " written by Jacques Steinberg linked below. Do click through to read more about the attempts of Ursinus College to improve their college admissions.**
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/education/16college.html
