As Colleges Compete for Fewer Students, the Pressure Rises to Meet Enrollment Targets

At Bucknell University (PA) last spring, prospective admissions were tracking similar to last year through most of April.  Then, a few days shy of the May 1 deadline for students to accept an admission offer and pay a deposit, "the spigot just turned off,” said Bucknell president John C. Bravman. The university found itself short of its freshman enrollment target and turned to the prospective students it had put on a waiting list. Instead of admitting 35 students off that list, as it usually does, the selective liberal arts university in central Pennsylvania took about 100. And it still started the fall a dozen students below its target.