PUBLIC COLLEGES
As economy sours, interest in education grows
Higher education can become a popular safe haven for people who want to ride out a recession.
This is particularly true for public colleges, which are much cheaper than their private counterparts.
So it’s no surprise that some State University of New York campuses are seeing a rise in applications for the fall.
“That pretty much is an historical trend, when the economy is bad, higher education is good,” said Mark J. Petrie, associate vice president for enrollment management at Buffalo State College.
Administrators at these schools believe the weak economy is a significant factor in the boost in applications and expected enrollment for the next school year.
Further, some community colleges, which are even cheaper than the four-year SUNY colleges, saw a sharp rise in applications for the semester that started in January.
“We have more interest than we’ve ever seen,” said Nelson Garifi, Jamestown Community College’s executive director of marketing.
Some of the schools experiencing this rise in applications, however, attribute the change to factors beyond the nation’s sluggish financial situation. These include wider recruiting, added student amenities and changes that make it easier for students to apply.
People who have lost their job may feel that earning a degree or a second degree will make it easier for them to find another, more secure job, college administrators say.
Also, for people who may believe they don’t have what it takes to be competitive in a tough economy, getting a degree can make them more marketable to employers.
“When the economy is bad, everybody looks at themselves and says, ‘What do I need to do? . . . How am I going to stay off the unemployment line?’ ” Buffalo State’s Petrie said.
SUNY’s cost advantage
Private colleges, however, can be expensive, and their cost has gone up recently at a rate higher than the inflation rate.
Public schools, including the SUNY campuses in New York, are a relative bargain.
The average cost of tuition and fees at a private, four-year college will be $25,143 for the 2008-09 school year, according to the College Board. That average cost for a public, four-year school is $6,585.
Chris Dearth, director of admissions for Fredonia State College, said he thinks that more high school seniors “when they’re filling out their [college] applications, they’re adding some less expensive options.”
As of Dec. 13, freshman applications for the fall semester at Buffalo State were up about 12 percent over the total at the same point in the process for the fall 2008 semester, which saw the largest application pool in the college’s history, according to Petrie.
Further, the college has seen a sharp uptick in transfer applications, which were up 23 percent for the current semester over the total for last spring.
“Students that may have been attending private institutions, which are more expensive, are saying, ‘We can’t do that anymore,’ ” Petrie said. “We saw the same thing in the early ’90s.”
At the University at Buffalo, freshman applications for the fall 2009 semester are up 7 percent over the total for the fall 2008 semester, said Patricia G. Armstrong, director of admissions. Transfer applications for the current semester were up 5 percent over a year ago.
Petrie and others said the historically sour economy is a big part of this growth.
Community colleges
Community colleges are particularly attractive, cheaper even than public four-year schools at a $2,402 average annual cost.
This may explain Niagara County Community College’s slight boost — about 150 more, as of mid-December — in the number of applicants for this spring semester compared to the spring 2008 semester, said Bassam M. Deeb, NCCC vice president for student services.
When the economy is in dire straits, cost becomes more of a deciding factor for students and their families, and public schools and community colleges become more attractive, Deeb said.
NCCC also has worked to market itself as a regional institution, drawing more students from Erie County, and has added amenities such as on-campus housing, he said.
“We have been very aggressive in that arena,” Deeb said.
Erie Community College saw a sharp increase in applications, from 5,800 for the spring 2008 semester to 7,300 for the current semester, a 26 percent rise, according to the college.
At JCC, applications for the spring 2009 semester as of Dec. 17 were up about 400, or about 64 percent, over the total from the same point in the application process for spring 2008.
“A lot of people are looking at community colleges. ‘I’ve got to shop for value. I need to find quality and affordability,’ ” Garifi said.
And students now can apply directly to the college, over the Web and at no cost. In the past, applications went through SUNY and there was an application fee, Garifisaid.
In addition to the economy and the other factors cited by the schools, this increase may just be a continuation of the “echo boom” trend. Even before the economy tanked, colleges in recent years have enjoyed rising enrollment from the children of Baby Boomers.
At least one SUNY campus, Fredonia State, said applications for fall 2009 are holding even when compared to applications for the fall 2008 semester.
Looking ahead, some SUNY campuses worry about the impact of the state’s budget crisis on enrollment.
Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed cutting state university funding and raising tuition for the 2008-09 school year, with future increases possible.
Any actions that make college more expensive will make it harder for lower-income students to enroll, college administrators say.
“That’s always a major concern. SUNY cuts are worrisome. We can absorb some cuts. The ones they’re proposing are worrisome,” Dearth said.
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