Low enrollment but high standards can only mean one thing for Bradley: a brave, new game plan.
In 2012, Illinois saw its highest number of graduating seniors at nearly 150,000 statewide.
According to Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Justin Ball, 82 percent of students that attend Bradley are from Illinois. With the nationwide trend of undergraduate admissions dropping, the Department of Enrollment Management has had to make adjustments to keep up with these trends.
“Bradley is a wholly residential campus, and that is becoming less appealing to this generation,” Ball said.
Vice President of Enrollment Management Paul Schroeder said Bradley is trying to combat these negative trends by adjusting financial packages, working with faculty and staff to better relay Bradley information to prospective students and changing the focus of the overall recruiting message.
“Bradley is moving away from its three pillars approach to talking about being large enough for stuff like study abroad, division one sports and more, but still small enough to offer one-on-one attention and resources,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder also confirmed that financial packages have already been changed for students that will be admitted for the 2015-2016 school year, but that the return-on-investment, what a student takes away from attending Bradley, remains the focus.
With the prices of higher education rising while the average Illinois household income is declining, Ball said four-year universities, especially private ones, are taking the hit, specifically when trying to recruit higher numbers of multicultural students and transfer students to the Hilltop.
“We’re behind the times in a lot of areas [regarding diversity], but we’re working on it,” Ball said.
Bradley developed its multicultural center and programming, working to unite students and promote diversity across campus according to Ball. He said that while the university continually expands upon the diversity of the student body, it cannot compete with schools such as Dominican University and DePaul University who have housed multicultural programs and centers for more than 75 years.
When it comes to transfer students, Bradley is running into roadblocks there as well. Ball said the needs of community college students are not what they used to be.
“We’ve found Bradley to not be a good fit for the growing population of community college students,” Ball said. “We’ve researched community colleges like DuPage, Harper and others near Chicago. [The students have] jobs and families and are doing a lot more than just school.”
Some students believe family housing is another option Bradley could look into.
“I would like to see Bradley add family housing to their offerings because I think both non-traditional students and students of a normal college age who already have children are prime examples of what the new market for students looks like and are groups who are maybe not being served in higher education in the way that the country needs them to be,” senior and member of the International Affairs Organization Mikalynn Katlack said.
Schroeder said the university faces an even bigger challenge than just numbers of student groups.
“Enrollment is a big challenge for the future of deciding who we want to be as a university,” he said. “There are not enough people in the next decade who desire or can afford this product [Bradley education].”
Some of the key venues of change and progress that Enrollment Management has worked with include more than 20 prospective student visit days throughout the school year, programs such as “Take BU Home for the Holidays” and the training of faculty, staff and the STARs.
Amidst the news of declining numbers, Ball said Bradley should still be proud of its standards.
“One thing we can say for certain is that through this process, the academic profile is not being lowered,” he said. “In fact, it went up by .11 this year.”
Schroeder and Ball said Bradley students can help with enrollment by wearing red on Fridays, being friendly toward Student Admission Representatives on visit days, staying positive about Bradley on social media and getting involved with campus events.
