When Marlin Collingwood became Point Park University’s vice president for enrollment management last spring, he knew the private university needed to draw more prospective students to its campus.
That’s why one of his first actions as VP aimed to incentivize high schoolers to pay a visit to the Downtown university. Starting this school year, high school juniors and seniors who visit Point Park between Sept. 1 and Feb. 15 will receive a $4,000 scholarship if they decide to attend the school.
The opportunity is rooted in the fact that students are more likely to apply to and attend colleges that they visit.
And Point Park leaders say they’re already reaping the benefits of the new program: Since last year, visits have increased about 40% and Open House attendance has jumped about 70%.
“It's a win-win for all of us,” Mr. Collingwood said. “We get the opportunity to show potential students and their families what we have to offer… in person, and it's an opportunity for them to get some additional scholarship money should they attend Point Park.”
The Downtown university is one of several private schools in the Pittsburgh region that currently offers a visiting scholarship to prospective students. La Roche University and Washington & Jefferson College both offer $1,000 grants, while Saint Vincent College gives individual campus visitors a $250 grant.
Across the country, over 200 colleges offer scholarships like these, which could help private schools attract more students as many face persistent enrollment downturns.
Research has shown that campus visits increase students’ probability of admission. By visiting a university, students and their parents set aside money and time to tour campus. That signals interest, said James Dearden, an economics professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem who co-authored a study on this topic in 2017.
“If [a prospective student] visits a university, it’s probably a better match for them or they think it's going to be,” Mr. Dearden said. “They visit to determine the match in part, but they think it's going to be a better match — and on average, it is.”
College administrators are cognizant of this, and want to push high schoolers to visit their campuses to experience what their schools have to offer.
La Roche has offered a visiting grant to prospective students for numerous years now. Each semester, the university typically welcomes about 500 visitors. Visits in fall 2023 were up 25% compared to fall 2022 numbers, according to the university.
By offering a visiting grant, La Roche rewards students who take the time to tour the Catholic school, said James “Chip” Weisgerber, the university’s vice president for enrollment management. It also gives La Roche officials a chance to make an in-person connection with high schoolers interested in the McCandless school.
“[Prospective students] get to come to campus, see all the great facilities and programs, and interact with faculty and students,” Mr. Weisgerber said. “[A visit] really gives them an opportunity to picture themselves at La Roche and find out if that would be a good fit for them.”
Incentives such as these scholarships could be key for private colleges and universities that are trying to stave off persisting enrollment downfalls. Expensive price tags, population declines and diminishing trust in higher education institutions have strained the enrollments of these schools over the past decade.
Point Park, for instance, saw its enrollment fall 20% between 2018 and 2022. The university wants to increase enrollment by at least 30% in the next six years.
School leaders believe they can meet that goal in part by showing students what Point Park has to offer face to face. Visiting Point Park can help prospective students picture themselves on campus, Mr. Collingwood said.
“I think it's important that you get the feel for campus,” he said. “It’s one thing to see the pretty pictures on a website or do a virtual tour… It's another thing to actually be here and walk into a building and see students and have conversations.”
These scholarship opportunities don’t only benefit universities. The financial aid that students receive for their visit could help assuage college costs — particularly for low-income students, said Mr. Dearden. The scholarships also push low-income students, who often face time and money barriers, to visit.
“If schools are subsidizing low income students to visit campus … it's actually improving the quality of that measure,” Mr. Dearden said. “The ability of the campus visit to signal a student’s interest is actually getting better … It's actually improving the way that universities can measure student interest.”
First Published: January 25, 2024, 10:30 a.m.
Updated: January 26, 2024, 6:37 p.m.
