[badger74]

Some data. Applications are way down for campus students. But enrollment is level.
Fiscal Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Fall Semester Fall 2017 Fall 2018 Fall 2019 Fall 2020 Fall 2021
Freshmen
Applicants 16,268 13,726 22,323 8,790 9,152
Acceptances 6,354 7,011 7,397 8,550 9,083
Matriculants 3,114 3,143 3,160 3,257 3,599
% of students accepted from applications 39.1% 51.1% 33.1% 97.3% 99.3%
% of students matriculated from students accepted 49.0% 44.8% 42.7% 38.1% 39.7%

C. Student Enrollment and Retention
The following table provides resident program headcount information reflecting the
total number of full-time and part-time students in resident undergraduate and graduate degree
programs for Fall semesters of fiscal years 2018-2022:
Resident Program Fall Headcount1
Fall Semester: 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Undergraduate 13,785 13,560 13,117 12,688 13,516
Graduate2 1,764 1,860 1,812 1,832 1,948
Total 15,549 15,420 14,929 14,520 15,464

[Veritas]

From our point of view with two prospective students, cost is part of the issue. I perceive that students and parents are becoming more savvy regarding cost generally and loans specifically. Yes, we've read that tuition has been "frozen," but all of the other attendant costs are increasing significantly. Point of fact, my oldest was just notified that he received the valedictorian scholarship, yet the all-in cost to graduate is likely in the $63k range because of certain requirements in his field of study that are somewhat unique to Liberty--and that's with nearly 70 college credits at age 18. We can absolutely afford this cost but consider he also received full ride offers from Florida State and the University of Florida. As an alumnus, I have an emotional connection to the school but the cost and inflexibilty in his field of study is proving to be a bridge too far.

Perhaps the above numbers are the classic "canary in the coal mine."

[BlueBlood]

Veritas, your post hits home. All 3 daughters are at LU - and all gave up full ride FL Bright Futures. It came down to a FSU/LU decision for all 3. I absolutely love the girls being at LU - but it was a tough fiscal decision. Actually I try not to think about it too much!

[Veritas]

Veritas, your post hits home. All 3 daughters are at LU - and all gave up full ride FL Bright Futures. It came down to a FSU/LU decision for all 3. I absolutely love the girls being at LU - but it was a tough fiscal decision. Actually I try not to think about it too much!

Bright Futures coupled with an academic scholarship is really tough to turn down, essentially resulting in a student being paid to attend. Also, legislative changes coming this year will result in DEI programs being defunded in Florida's state universities, creating an arguably less toxic environment for conservative students.

But back to the thread topic, Dondi Costin like a good choice from afar. However, the cost of attendance is an issue and we can't be the only family with a high performing student who finds the cost (at least for a computer science degree) dilutive of the ROI for an LU degree.

[Ill flame]

This seems in line with national trends. College enrollment has been dropping since 2010 and plummeted since covid which explains a lot of the drop in applications combined with the falwell controversies. Lu is doing better than most colleges with enrollment.

As far as cost is concerned LU has come a long way in that regard since the tuition freeze began but it's tough to compete with public schools. For the class of 2016 LU was ranked 73rd among private schools and 134th overall for student loan debt per borrower. In the most recent data I could find they are ranked 23rd among privates and 53rd overall which says more about the price increases across the country more than anything LU is doing. If they have any desire whatsoever to increase academic rankings they would increase the amount of scholarships going toward top performing students.


https://lendedu.com/blog/student-loan-d ... e/#private

[Veritas]

This seems in line with national trends. College enrollment has been dropping since 2010 and plummeted since covid which explains a lot of the drop in applications combined with the falwell controversies. Lu is doing better than most colleges with enrollment.

As far as cost is concerned LU has come a long way in that regard since the tuition freeze began but it's tough to compete with public schools. For the class of 2016 LU was ranked 73rd among private schools and 134th overall for student loan debt per borrower. In the most recent data I could find they are ranked 23rd among privates and 53rd overall which says more about the price increases across the country more than anything LU is doing. If they have any desire whatsoever to increase academic rankings they would increase the amount of scholarships going toward top performing students.



https://lendedu.com/blog/student-loan-d ... e/#private

No doubt the public/private institutions aren't an apples-to-apples comparison but it is the competitive environment in which Liberty operates. When I was last involved in education policy in Florida about a decade ago, roughly 2/3 of the in-state student cost of our state universities was subsidized by the state (and I imagine other state schools are similar in funding). A student's out of pocket cost after generous scholarships in Florida is but a fraction of the total cost to support large institutions such as FSU, UCF, UF, and USF. It is impressive nonetheless what Liberty has been able to achieve without the massive subsidies of a state legislature.

With Liberty's scholarship structure, you cannot stack other inducements such as the legacy scholarship on top of the valedictorian scholarship, resulting in a very wide gulf between valedictorian and national merit/99% SAT/ACT scores. Tuition may be "frozen" but it's a shell game with other costs and fees being added or increased such that the out of pocket for us increased by nearly $3k a year in just two years since we began looking at the valedictorian scholarship. YMMV may vary depending on your course of study, naturally.

It is also conceivable the data above regarding student loan costs for Liberty may reflect a greater mix of (a) wealthy parents and/or (b) high performing students receiving academic scholarships. I can't imagine attempting to carry nearly the full cost of attendance at Liberty for an upper middle class family whose student doesn't qualify for the higher end academic scholarships.

[Ill flame]

To clarify I'm not saying LU has gotten cheaper or remained the same price over the last 5 years tuition has been frozen. As you mention they keep raising the price of housing and food every year. Unfortunately nearly every other university in the country has raised prices far more than LU over the last 5 years and that's where they are picking up ground. As an example last time LU raised tuition UVAs instate tuition was around $7k a year cheaper and their tuition will likely surpass LUs in the next 5 years.

Hopefully Costin rebuilds some goodwill and we see an uptick in donations toward scholarships in addition to applications going back toward the norm.

[Sly Fox]

Let the record show that I split this topic off from the Costin discussion since it has merit on its own.

There is no denying that cost differential between Liberty and state schools is a massive challenge. As someone with two kids at a state university right now here in Texas, I can tell you that ROI was a massive consideration in the selection process.

My youngest is just a HS sophomore but looking hard at Liberty. As much as I would love for her to attend my alma mater, she knows that she has to perform exceptionally well on her NMSQT this coming year to assure that option remains in place unless some other scholarships arise.

On a semi-related note, did anyone else have a clue just how crucial that PSAT experience junior year is to determining scholarships? I know that I am a fossil, but it was all about the SAT & ACT back in the day. These days those tests are practically inconsequential. If you are investing in test prep, spend you money on your kid rocking the PSAT/NMSQT. We learned the hard way on our oldest.

[Veritas]

Thank you - apologies for the threadjack. For those of us that live in states with generous postsecondary scholarships (and a selection of perceived "good" state schools not overtaken by woke cultural rot), zero cost vs. substantial investment is a real issue. We are committed to zero student loans in undergraduate for all of our kids so out the door cost is always a factor. Other states (notably, apparently, the UVA example above) are not as well situated, it seems.

We worked the PSAT angle for our two oldest kids but, frankly, they were not ready for that level of pure academic performance. And now there's the CLT, in addition to the SAT and ACT, for late bloomers. There are a bewildering array of scholarships, some of which may be stacked and others that may not. For example, if you obtain a sufficiently high score on the ACT/CLT/SAT, you can stack other scholarships and cover nearly the full cost of attendance, similar to the national merit scholarship. However, if you are awarded the valedictorian scholarship, you cannot stack other scholarships. We have spoken to at least a dozen individuals along the way (over the phone and at CFAW) and have received slightly different and sometimes conflicting answers on combining scholarships, which doesn't inspire confidence. In this area, LU needs improvement in training and communication.

[BlueBlood]

I have to admit - the numbers in Badger74's initial post shocked me a bit. But looking back, enrollment took a 1-2 punch from covid and Jr's meltdown. It's probably difficult to glean how much of the decline was covid and how much was Jr. I suspect that those are by far the two biggest contributors. It will be interesting to see where the new application/acceptance numbers are at when they come out.

[Veritas]

https://fortune.com/2023/03/09/american ... ation/amp/

“Searching for answers, education officials crossed the state last year and heard that easy access to jobs, coupled with student debt worries, made college less attractive.”

No doubt the press around Jr’s extra curricular activities didn’t help.