Ohio University expects a smaller freshman class this academic year, following previous years of record-breaking first-year enrollment.
One reason for this decrease in enrollment is due to recent challenges with students receiving financial aid, while another is because the university has arranged for the decline in certain areas.
Candace Boeninger, vice president for Enrollment Management, said during the Board of Trustees meeting in August that her department will not know the exact enrollment numbers until the census date, Sept. 9, but OU can expect a smaller freshman class than in past years.
“We will be a little bit smaller this fall, some of that is by design,” Boeninger said. “We had had two record fall freshman classes in a row, and we have a couple of forces within this freshman class that are impacting enrollment.”
Boeninger said her department has decided to throttle enrollment in certain programs because they are nearing maximum capacity for students they can support.
One example given during the meeting was the aviation program. The university is currently in the process of receiving more planes to accommodate the number of students within the program, Boeninger said.
Although it is necessary to cut enrollment in some programs, Boeninger said she is concerned some students are not receiving financial aid due to recent Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form changes, leading them to be unable to enroll in OU because of the financial burden.
In June, there was a decrease in the number of students submitting FAFSA forms nationally, Boeninger said.
“The situation has improved a little bit as the FAFSA continues to be submitted for students enrolling this fall, but overall, we are still, as a nation and as a state, down in FAFSA submissions,” Boeninger said.
The enrollment management team has discussed solutions to ensure college access is more equitable, Boeninger said.
One solution OU currently has in place is the OHIO Guarantee+ program, which ensures students’ tuition remains unchanged throughout their college careers.
“The program was designed to take the guesswork out of budgeting for college through a cohort-based, level-rate tuition, housing, dining and fee model that does not rise with the cost of inflation for their four years or 12 consecutive semesters,” Sam Pelham, university spokesperson said.
This program is only available to students for a limited time, either four years or 12 consecutive semesters, which includes summers, according to the university website.
According to the U.S. Department of Education college scorecard, the average annual cost to attend OU, including federal financial aid, is $20,070.
OU has one of the lowest rates among other public universities in Ohio. According to the college scorecard, the average annual rate to attend the Miami University-Oxford is $24,791, the University of Cincinnati is $21,804, Bowling Green State University is $20,879 and Kent State is only $18,340.
All of the universities' annual average rate, except for Kent State University, ranges slightly higher than the midpoint for 4-year universities in the U.S., which is $19,555.
The college scorecard allows students to access and compare average tuition rates of colleges around the U.S. to see how rates have changed over time, Pelham said.
OU’s website for the Ohio Guarantee+ also includes information on tuition from previous years, ranging from the 2019-2020 cohort to the 2023-2024 cohort.
It shows an increase of over $2,300 in annual average tuition cost from the 2019-2020 academic year to the 2023-2024 academic year.
Boeninger said this enrollment period feels like it did during COVID-19, given some of the challenges with financial aid and not being able to meet the needs of all students,
“It's been strange this whole time because most of the world is bopping along and having a great time, and if you're anywhere connected to federal student aid, it's been a little bit more like the COVID summer and that disconnect,” Boeninger said.
