With students scarce, college admissions offices get friendlier, less intimidating
Now Skidmore and a small number of other institutions have taken a surprising next step: enlisting faculty to help recruit new students — a role they previously left entirely to the admissions office — by meeting with and opening their labs and classrooms to prospective and admitted applicants.
“It creates a feeling of what it would be like to be seen, valued and to find a place of belonging on a campus,” said Jess Ricker, the college’s vice president for enrollment. And that, Ricker said, can help distinguish Skidmore from the other schools on students’ lists.
Admissions leaders are looking for any advantage. Two-thirds of them had trouble meeting their enrollment targets in at least one of the last two years, according to a survey by the ratings platform Niche. Ninety-seven percent expect the competition to increase.
The reality they face: The supply of traditional-age freshmen nationwide is projected to decline by 13 percent over the next 15 years, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The proportion of high school graduates choosing to go on to college is also down, from 70% in 2016 to 63% in 2024, the most recent year for which the figure is available, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
