The impact of September 11 on college admissions
Brendan Eisner, a senior at Ohio's Solon High School, was considering about ten colleges prior to September 11, but after the terrorists attacks his list changed. Places like Tulane University were axed from the list, while institutions that were closer to home, such as Bucknell University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Michigan were added.
"Kenyon was the school that was closest to home on my list; a lot of the other schools were on the West Coast or in the South," says Eisner. "I decided that I didn't want to attend a college that wasn't within driving distance of my family."
In early October, the Wall Street Journal led the pack of publications looking at what effect September 11 might have on this year's college recruiting season. The predicted wisdom surmised that safety, distance from home, and financial concerns would change the landscape, with rural colleges poised to benefit from their remote location. Kenyon's early admissions numbers showed that numbers were up significantly, particularly in Ohio and the Midwest, where the numbers were down last year.
"It's hard to make direct correlations in the admissions business since so many factors come into play," says Dean of Admissions John W. Anderson. "But we'd like to think that our enhanced recruiting efforts, particularly those we made after September 11, have paid off. Our applications up about 40 percent, which is a dramatic increase."
"If we were to look at only our Ohio applications, there's an increase of 50 percent," says Anderson. "In the Midwest overall, we've seen an increase of 60 percent ."
In anticipation of possible shifts in attitudes after the terrorists attacks, the admissions office began highlighting the College's rural location, concentrating on students within driving distance of campus, and conducting interviews on the East Coast for students who didn't want to travel to campus. When anthrax became a public threat, Kenyon waived its $45 application fee for students who applied on line. By encouraging electronic applications, the College hoped to prevent possible delays in receiving applications--and reduce the amount of mail the admissions office staff had to handle.
Eisner's tale reflects what people in the media call a "trend story," but Kenyon's Office of Admissions reports seeing students who are more thoughtful about their search process, rather than seeing those who've made drastic changes. The story of Jessica Freeman-Slade, a senior at Massachusett's Concord Academy, is one example.
After visiting the College last summer, Freeman-Slade says she fell in love with Kenyon, which quickly rose to the top of her list. Of the institutions she had considered, the College was the farthest from home. Shortly after September 11, Kenyon took a back seat to a group of colleges and universities that were closer to Freeman-Slade's family. Late in the fall, however, she decided to apply to the College as part of the second round of early-decision applicants.
"I think that September 11 made me take a really hard look at my college choices," says Freeman-Slade. "For a while, I didn't want to fly, and I didn't want to be so far away from my family. What I found, and I think this is true for many kids my age, is that September 11 may have made me reevaluate some things about my life, but it didn't change my convictions about what I want to do with life. The terrorist attacks made me think twice about a lot of things, and because I really had to take a hard look at some of my decisions, I'm more sure than ever that I want to attend Kenyon."
There's a great deal of uncertainty in the admissions office, though. "We're navigating unchartered territory here," says Anderson. "No one is sure how things will play out, but I think a lot of the original speculation was more of a momentary reaction as opposed to a real change."
While the media have fixated on how September 11 is affecting the economy, Anderson says it's important to remember that the economy had begun to suffer even before September 11. "We don't know what the economic stress will mean for us," says Anderson. "It's still a wild card."
Anderson recalls the recession of the late 1980s as a difficult time for private colleges, Kenyon being no exception. "What's different about the recession we're in now is that people's wealth had grown so much that I think some of the perceived loss today is more psychological than anything else," he says. "We don't anticipate a decline in the number of applications, but we do anticipate more students applying for financial aid."
Carolyn Kingston, an associate director of admissions, says it's hard to gauge how people are reacting to the sliding economy since they aren't always forthcoming about issues involving money. "Sometimes people will say, 'Our situation has changed,' or something like that," says Kingston. "I often think that's a subtle way of saying that they are looking at less expensive options."
Ed Hu, dean of juniors and seniors at the Harvard-Westlake School, an independent school in Studio City, California, that has sent a number of students to Kenyon, says he doesn't think September 11 is playing much of a role in his students' college decisions. While he says he's seen some parents who are skittish about sending their children to New York City, he notes that most of his students are applying to the same institutions they were looking at prior to September 11.
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