The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS) by Susan Snyder
The city of Philadelphia Over the next years, Pennsylvania State University hopes to increase the number of first-year students at University Park while enrollment at its Commonwealth campuses drops.
This fall, around 9,200 freshmen attend the main campus. Matt Melvin, vice president for enrollment management, stated that the school’s ultimate goal is to achieve 10,000 students.
Melvin stated that University Park received almost 106,000 applications for the summer and fall of 2024, indicating that it is truly in response to demand. Because of that demand, we have a competitive advantage.
For the summer and fall of 2024, Penn State’s overall admission rate was 79%. However, it was 50% at University Park, which means that half of the students who wish to attend are turned away. The overall yield rate, or the proportion of accepted students who enroll, is 15.6% for the university and 17.4% for University Park.
A ground lease agreement for a new 1,500-bed housing development targeted at upperclassmen was approved by the university’s board of trustees last month. The land is owned by the university under the ground lease, but Greystar complex East LLC will build and run the complex. The institution is making the change in an effort to accommodate more freshmen.
We wanted non-first-year students who would typically choose to live with us to still have an affordable alternative as we admit more first-year students because the live-on requirement will deplete more of our own inventory, said Sara Thorndike, senior vice president for finance and business.
According to Melvin, University Park’s roughly 15,000 beds are nearly full. The new resident hall will have roughly 775 beds available in the autumn of 2027, with the remaining beds to be added by the following fall.
(Abby Drey / Centre Daily Times, file) Old Main at Penn State’s University Park campus in State College, Pa.
Growing at a time of nationwide drops
The lease deal was approved by all but one of the more than thirty trustees. In light of the enrollment issues facing institutions across the country, Barry Fenchak, who owns an investment consulting company at State College, voted no, stating that he did not believe it was a smart idea to boost enrollment at the main campus. Due in part to the disastrous introduction of the FAFSA, a federal financial aid application, freshman enrollment fell 5% nationwide this fall. As the number of high school students shrinks, greater declines are expected.
Fenchak raised concerns about the effect on yield and pointed out that the school wants to draw in more out-of-state students, who are more expensive. Pennsylvania accounts for roughly 58% of Penn State’s student body.
According to him, we are already sifting through our application pool in great detail. Furthermore, putting ourselves in a situation where we must boost enrollment will only make those worries worse.
However, Melvin stated that the university would have time to expand its support services for student achievement because the increase will occur gradually.
“In terms of strong outcome variables, we feel like we can meet [our] mission by expanding without harming ourselves,” he said.
At a committee meeting where the housing proposal was reviewed, board vice chair Richard S. Sokolov stated that the board had been discussing methods to expand possibilities to attend University Park and the need for additional accommodation to accommodate students during a recent retreat. This proposal eliminates the need for Penn State to construct a new residence hall.
According to Sokolov, vice chairman of the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, “this is the equivalent of having a private entity invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build an asset that is going to enable us to increase enrollment, drive income, and generate substantial financial gain with zero risk, if, for whatever reason, let’s say there was another pandemic and there was a problem with people attending.” In addition to operating this building, they still have to pay the ground rent and their mortgage.
Melvin admitted that there were issues with enrollment, such as the public’s growing doubts about the worth of a college education. Additionally, he mentioned additional training program opportunities.
However, according to Melvin, the institution is also stepping up its recruitment efforts, giving Illinois—dubbed the new New Jersey—more consideration. New Jersey has long been one of the leading states in the export of high school graduates to other universities.
According to Melvin, the Commonwealth campuses, which draw students looking for smaller classes nearer to home, won’t suffer from the initiative to increase University Park enrollment.
“These populations are very different,” he remarked.
A way to grow revenue
The Commonwealth schools have seen a steady decline in enrollment. Last June, it was at 24,000, a 30% decrease from 2010. Those schools saw a roughly 2% drop in overall enrollment this fall, but the drop in first-year enrollment was more severe, falling by 8.4% or 578 students.
This year, about 380 Commonwealth campuses employees—roughly 21% of the eligible workforce—took part in a buyout.
Enrollment rose by 365 students last autumn, or less than 1%, whereas the main campus now has over 42,000 students.
This autumn, Penn State has slightly under 88,000 students enrolled on all of its campuses.
Melvin agreed that drawing more students to University Park will contribute to higher profits. By this summer, the institution hopes to reduce its deficit, which was $191 million in 2022. According to a university spokesperson, the university is on course to conclude this fiscal year with a balanced budget.
More Penn State Football News
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!