In state education news,
with the start of the new academic
year, estimates show freshman
enrollment is up at universities
of Wisconsin schools this fall.
That's after six branch campuses
closed or stopped in-person classes
in the last three years.
According to the UW, new student
enrollment is a total of 3
percent, with eight campuses
Increasing increases at or above
five percent.
Overall, enrollment at the UW
stands at more than 164,000
students.
System President Jay Rothman says
the new Direct Admit program
is attracting new students.
Under the program, qualified high
school juniors get direct admission
based on grades and coursework.
UW-Madison, Eau Claire, and La
Crosse do not participate,
but Wisconsin high school applicants
ranking in the top 5 percent
are guaranteed admission to UW-
Madison under a different program.
UW-Madison Professor of Education,
Taylor Odle, conducts national
research on direct admission
programs.
He joins us now.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks so much for the invitation.
So what is it like to see your
research in action like
this?
I think that's every researcher's
dream. We work a lot, we work
with a lot of data, talk to a lot
policy makers, and the ultimate goal
at the end of the day is that what
we do matters.
And that's also true of the
Wisconsin idea that we care about
here at UW-Madison, that the
scholarship and the insights that we
produce actually make their way
into the hands of policy makers
and then to lives of people who live
across the state.
So, as we said,
Jay Rothman says our
Direct Admit program is
driving new enrollment.
Why do these programs work?
They work because we make it easier
for people to take us up on our
offers of admission.
The pathway to getting into college,
and this doesn't have anything to do
with eliminating or reducing
standards of admission, it has to
do simplifying the pathway.
And so we know that students and
families have to navigate a lot of
complex red tape, applying,
sending transcripts, taking tests,
getting letters of rec, et cetera,
et cetera. And so if we implement
programs like direct admissions
that... Cut their way through that
red tape and say hey we know that
you're admissible tell us when
you want to come to campus because
we want you to be here.
Surprisingly more people show up on
campus when we make it easier for
them to do so.
And yet, not all people who get that
letter that say, you've been
directly admitted to one
of these schools across the
state enroll, why wouldn't
they?
That's a great question.
There are myriad reasons of why
people choose to go to college and
also why they choose not to go
college. And so getting admitted,
getting that letter, getting excited
is one piece of the puzzle.
But we also know there are other
things that impact whether or not
people come to college, principally
whether or they can afford it.
But also there are a variety of
other factors.
You may be a single parent.
You may also be working while
learning and supporting your parents
doing some other engagement
with the community as well.
And so it's just one piece of the
puzzle, but it seems like that
piece has been important for getting
more students to show up on campus.
A similar program that you developed
in Tennessee also has
a personalized financial
aid estimate feature attached
to it. How important a piece is that
for students and families?
That piece in Tennessee?
Thank you.
We think it's critical because it
changes the message from there's a
spot for you on campus to there's
spot for on campus and there are
resources to help you afford it.
So it pushes people further down the
college going pathway by letting
them know what their options are for
where they can go, but also what
their option are for how they can
pay for it.
Students and families often face
this kind of big amorphous
number of how much does it really
cost and they have to complete
things like the FAFSA and hear from
their campus about how much it's
gonna cost at the end of the day And
so. If we can provide a little bit
more of that information upfront, we
hope that it helps kind of create
a snowball effect, if you will.
They're more likely to file that
FAFSA, more likely engage with the
campus, so they have a better choice
set.
Is that something that could
attach to the Wisconsin program
as well?
Absolutely, yes.
So we're actually using information
that already exists on these
students, such as their GPA, much
like Direct Admit Wisconsin, and the
guarantee does here to know whether
or not students would be eligible
for merit-based financial aid.
Some other states like the state of
Washington are actually using K-12
records on free and reduced
price lunch and also students
participation in SNAP and TANF
and other things to actually
pre-award them need-based financial
aid, so there's some bubbling of
this across the country and would
love to see it in Wisconsin for
sure.
So we know that declining
enrollments have been a concern for
UW schools for decades.
How meaningful can direct admit
programs be toward pulling as
many new students in even
as demographics work
against that?
They can be critical because, as you
mentioned, demographics are also
changing.
And so the student who shows up on
campus today isn't necessarily,
doesn't necessarily look like the
student that showed up on the campus
30 years ago.
Many students who are showing up,
whether they're students who weren't
originally born in the U.S.
Or students of color,
students from very rural
backgrounds, students from low
income families, those students face
a lot of barriers in navigating that
college application process.
And so direct admissions in many
ways is designed for them.
It eliminates those barriers
completely and says, hey, you've
done a really great job
academically.
There is a place for you on campus.
And I think this is why, and I'm
happy to see this system attributing
a lot of these enrollment increases
to direct admissions programs like
this, because they're kind of
common sense, I think, all around.
So Jay Rothman also notes that
the new enrollment numbers show
there are significant declines
in international students as we
would have expected, up to 15
percent nationwide.
I don't know where we square with
that right at this moment.
But what kind of loss is that
to campus communities?
It's a large loss, right?
So, and the student interpersonal
aspect of not being engaged or
not being exposed to students of
varying cultural or ethnic or
religious backgrounds, which is a
hallmark, I think, of the college
experience. It's also critically
important for our institutions.
We're facing lagging
and slow support from the
state. We're face reductions from
the federal government and funds for
research dollars, and now students,
particularly international students, who pay
out of state tuition, and so.
We're in a particularly hard place,
and so losing this population not
only has an academic loss for
campuses, but a financial one as
well.
We leave it there, UW-Madison
Professor Taylor Ode.
Thanks very much.
Thanks for inviting me.