Blade - University of Toledo’s multi-year enrollment decline accelerated this year, with total student population down more than 1,000 compared to last year, a drop university officials said was “exacerbated by the pandemic.”

That steep drop was in stark contrast with Bowling Green State University, which announced its highest enrollment in a decade. Total headcount was up 1.6 percent, the university said, and its retention rate was the highest in a century.

Blame Gaber

I don't think I would consider blame until I saw that BG actually did something differently other than exist in a different place. Could simply be a result of the differences in the schools. Rural and suburban NW OHIO students that might have wanted to attend UT maybe because of the currect situation, prefering to stay more local to BG?

I thought Garber wanted us to become more selective and more exclusive? Becoming a better school with slightly less accepted sounds fine.

(09-17-2020 07:35 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  I don't think I would consider blame until I saw that BG actually did something differently other than exist in a different place. Could simply be a result of the differences in the schools. Rural and suburban NW OHIO students that might have wanted to attend UT maybe because of the currect situation, prefering to stay more local to BG?

I know in 2019 BGSU gain was from enrolling a large class of College Credit Plus (CCP) students - a high school student program where UT also has hundreds of students - that may also account for some of the difference again this year, but they also mention graduate students, perhaps some investments or new programs there? UT had large drops in Education, Business, Human Health Sciences, even Engineering was down.

(09-18-2020 07:28 AM)PaulJ Wrote:  

(09-17-2020 07:35 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  I don't think I would consider blame until I saw that BG actually did something differently other than exist in a different place. Could simply be a result of the differences in the schools. Rural and suburban NW OHIO students that might have wanted to attend UT maybe because of the currect situation, prefering to stay more local to BG?

I know in 2019 BGSU gain was from enrolling a large class of College Credit Plus (CCP) students - a high school student program where UT also has hundreds of students - that may also account for some of the difference again this year, but they also mention graduate students, perhaps some investments or new programs there? UT had large drops in Education, Business, Human Health Sciences, even Engineering was down.

From everything I've heard, nearly half of the decline can be attributed to INTL students...something BGSU doesn't have to worry about nearly as much.

Also national and state wide fall 2020 enrollment data, shows that mid size public 4 yr colleges (10,000-19,000) in urban areas experienced the biggest decline in enrollment, more students stayed home or close to home, avoided urban areas, and in the case of Ohio, large colleges (UC, OSU) really opened up admissions and drew more than usual direct HS away from colleges including UT and also from UT market where we typically pull in direct HS (NW Ohio). Enrollment Services will tell you that although many in the public and media like to compare UT and BGSU as competitors for direct HS students - and they are in some cases like Education and Nursing - they are actually very different in their direct HS recruitment target populations, international students being one big difference as already mentioned here.