Enrollment at St. Lawrence University has decreased from last year. However, the school’s Admissions directors are confident they can keep low enrollment from becoming an issue.
According to SLU’s “Enrollment and Academics” webpage, there are 1,812 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at SLU this year, down from the 1,949 last year that U.S. News reported in their “Best Colleges” rankings. This lower enrolment follows SLU’s smallest-ever first-year class in the class of 2028. But the decreased enrollment is not isolated only to SLU.
Executive Director of Admissions Lyndsay Malcomb ‘10 said that a number of current factors are hurting many small liberal arts colleges like SLU. “St. Lawrence, like many small private colleges in the Northeast and Midwest, is navigating well-documented national trends,” she said. “The number of high school graduates is shrinking—a demographic cliff that is hitting rural liberal arts colleges especially hard—and many students are gravitating toward large public universities in the South, where warmer climates, big-school culture, and the viral popularity of sorority recruitment on TikTok have fueled rapid growth. These pressures affect our entire sector, and St. Lawrence is not immune to them.”
To combat the adverse enrollment trends, Malcomb said that Admissions is relying on several strategies to keep new students coming to SLU. “We are pursuing a broad set of proactive strategies to strengthen recruiting, engagement, and yield,” she said. “This year, we launched new market-research efforts to better understand what prospective students and families value most, and we refreshed our digital presence—including a much more robust Niche profile.” She also named the $1,000 Visit Grant scholarship, which discounts $1,000 per year from tuition for prospective students who attend a Visit Day or an official tour at SLU, to attract more students to campus. “We know that once students see us for themselves, they are more likely to want to join our community,” Malcomb added.
Malcomb noted that there are already indications of greater prospective student interest in SLU, with more fall visits to campus, including 134 prospective students and their families on November Visit Day. “Our Mosaic NYC bus trip brought 43 students, up from just 17 last year, and our Augsbury North Country Scholarship breakfast attracted 42 attendees after not being held at all last year,” she continued. “We’ve updated the structure and on-campus location of our visit events to create an even more engaging and welcoming experience.”
There are a few other resources that Malcomb believes will strengthen SLU’s appeal. A new initiative with Halda.ai kicked off last month to help Admissions understand how to better speak to prospective students’ criteria and inclinations. Malcomb also wants to leverage SLU’s ranking as the school with the number one alumni network in the nation, hoping to make prospective students fully aware of mentoring and support advantages of being at a school with such a network. “Looking ahead, we are building out additional spring yield events to keep the momentum strong as admitted students make their final decisions,” she added.
Malcomb emphasized the role of current students in engaging new Laurentians. “Our greatest strength continues to be our students,” she said. “When Saints serve as ambassadors—whether they’re officially giving tours, saying hello to visitors, or talking about their academic and co-curricular experiences—it has a powerful impact on prospective students. We also encourage students to share their St. Lawrence stories in ways that feel authentic to them, including highlighting their favorite moments on their own social media accounts and tagging @StLawrenceU, or resharing posts from the University’s channels. Peer-to-peer insight is often the most compelling message a prospective student can hear, and our students’ voices help future Laurentians imagine themselves here.”
As far as Malcomb is concerned, the lower enrollment this year will not stop SLU from achieving a positive future. “We remain confident in the value of a St. Lawrence education,” she said. “The University will continue to invest in programs, partnerships, and experiences that help students flourish and that make our community one that students want to join.”
SLU Vice President for Enrollment Management Johnathan Kent ’04 contributed information to this article