Smallest First Year Class in Decade: SLU Mirrors Local & National Trends
SLU Mirrors Local & National Trends
St. Lawrence University recently welcomed the smallest class in a decade, proving that it has not been spared from the nationwide enrollment decrease.
As of Sep. 1, 2024, the current enrollment for the class of 2028 is 454, almost 100 less than the year before. According to data over the last decade, this is SLU’s smallest class since 2014. While there was an increase in total enrollment from 2015 to 2018, from 2019 on there has been a steady decline in undergraduate enrollment at SLU. SLU is not the only school in the area experiencing the enrollment decline. SUNY Potsdam, SUNY Canton, and Clarkson University show similar trends.
Enrollment from 2014 compared to 2023 is lower at all local schools [see graph], most extremely at SUNY Potsdam.
The decline in enrollment, specifically for the class of 2028, has been impacted by the Free Application for Federal Students Aid. It came out three months later than normal due to changes to the FAFSA implemented by congress in a 2020 act. “The delay of the FAFSA meant that students didn’t know what they were going to pay, and therefore couldn’t commit,” said Scott Born, a current account executive who has extensive experience in college enrollment and admissions.
For the last decade, colleges have been grappling with the lack of students pursuing higher education for other reasons. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, there has been a 1.5 percent decrease in enrollment since 2011.
“In terms of trends in higher education, right now, state college enrollment, because of affordability, is going up, and independent and private colleges are going down,” said Born. He mentioned that for liberal arts schools such as SLU, there is another conversation to be had about the decline in enrollment. Fewer people are inclined to receive a liberal arts education now, which leads to budget cuts in these small schools. “They’re getting rid of everything that brings the beauty to a liberal arts education,” said Born. As expenses such as healthcare and insurance are raised, so do the costs colleges must pay to keep their staff. “That’s the vast majority of costs for small liberal arts colleges,” said Born about professor salaries.
Hewitt Sykes, a recent graduate from South Portland High School in Maine was one of the students affected by the FAFSA delay. Sykes was considering multiple schools to continue his education, SLU being one of them. “It was hard to make such an influential decision when I was still missing a financial puzzle piece,” said Sykes. One of the schools he was waiting to hear back from did not give him his FAFSA until mid-July. “I missed deadlines for other schools and changed my view on going to college,” said Sykes. After much consideration, Sykes decided to take a gap year and explore other options, noting that he thinks his decision could have been different if it were not for the delay in FAFSA.
Welcoming the first years to campus was no different this year regardless of class size. Renate Jakobsen ’26 has been an orientation leader for two years now, welcoming the class of 2027 and 2028. Jakobsen said there was not much of a difference compared to her experience as an OL each year. “Last year when we did the first-year cup, we did it inside the Winston room and it was so stuffed,” said Jakobsen. “I think [the first-year cup] was the only time I really noticed there were not that many of them,” said Jakobsen.
While SLU has been seeing a decline in enrollment over the last decade, the class of 2028 is significantly smaller. Lyndsay Malcomb ’10, executive director of admissions at SLU, echoes the sentiment that the biggest challenge with enrollment for this year was the delay in the FAFSA. Despite the size of the class, Malcomb expressed how many records this class has broken. “While small, the class is excellent in so many ways. Highest GPA ever, highest test scores ever,” she said.
“I think St Lawrence’s overall enrollment dream number is about 2000 students,” said Malcomb. As a graduate of SLU, she remarked on her time spent here and how there were so many students that spaces had to be converted into rooms to accommodate everyone. “When you grow it’s harder to scale back down to the right size in terms of facilities and faculty and staffing,” said Malcomb.
Malcomb discussed all the initiatives that admissions has been implementing over the last few years to combat the decline in enrollment. SLU added early action in 2022, something that does not bind students to enrolling, but allows them more time to consider their options.
Additionally, admissions have been widening their marketing to help increase brand awareness in cities. “It generally takes three years to see change in the market. Our hope is that those will kind of counterbalance the geodemographic changes,” said Malcomb. Like many other institutions, SLU will have to adapt to the changes in higher education enrollment.