Although receiving an influx of applications for graduate school during times of economic strife makes intuitive sense in higher education, applications at Ohio University are down this year.
I really thought we'd see a significant increase
but we haven't yet Executive Vice President and Provost Kathy Krendl said.
Graduate applications have experienced a consistent upward trend over the past five years, said Jennifer Hines, associate dean of the Graduate College. Application numbers reached a peak last year at 3,019, up from 2,134 in 2004, but have decreased to 2,693 this year.
The numbers are leveling out, Hines said.
Our numbers this year are on par with 2007 she added.
Having a preconceived notion of whether the trend would continue into this year would've been over-speculative without a clear model of the factors that affect application numbers, Hines said. There was no model before the creation of the Graduate College Fall Quarter 2008.
It would've been nice to continue the trend
she said.
The number of students who actually enroll has been constant, but it is more difficult to calculate than the undergraduate yield, Hines said. Undergraduates need to submit housing deposits before they arrive, but no such action exists at the graduate level.
The university doesn't have a clear picture of who's going to arrive until much later, and this year the economy adds to the uncertainty, Krendl said.
All institutions are working hard at the (final) yield because the decision could be tied to the economic situation at the time
Krendl said.
Establishing an overall target enrollment at the graduate level is more challenging because the system is more decentralized, with programs having their own targets based on their individual capacity, Hines said.
There is also a greater fluctuation with graduate enrollment because of cohort programs and different start and end times, Krendl said.
Any change to graduate tuition, which isn't subject to the tuition freeze, is still in discussion, Hines said. The Budget Planning Council, however, has proposed increasing graduate student tuition by 3.5 percent next year.
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Lucas Bechtol
