Over the past decade, I've watched my alma mater become highly selective with admissions. This year, Kenyon College accepted only 29% of its applicants. I've heard that OSU has also become more selective. Is this a trend among Ohio colleges and universities?

 

GAMBIER, Ohio (August 27, 2007) Heat and humidity moved Opening Convocation festivities indoors to the KAC this year, where the 463 students in Kenyon's newest class were officially welcomed to the College on Thursday, August 23.

The Class of 2011 faced stiffer competition than any previous class to gain admission to Kenyon. The applicant pool swelled to 4,627 in the last year, leading to a historically low admittance rate of 29 percent, three points lower than last year. The yield, or percentage of admitted students who enrolled, increased to 34 percent, up three percentage points over the last two years. Higher yield is widely considered to be an index of a college's increased desirability in the eyes of admitted students.

 

Last year Kenyon experienced a 25 percent surge in early decision applications, and this year saw about the same number of early decision applicants as last year. Thirty-eight percent of the class, or 177 students, were admitted from the early decision pool.

 

Although final statistics on the makeup of the class won't be available for a few weeks, as of summer's end the admissions office reported notable gains in Hispanic-American recruitment this year, with a doubling of enrollment in the current first-year class to 18. Minorities overall represent 14 percent of the class, the same percentage as last year. African-American enrollment decreased from 22 to 17 students, while Asian-American enrollment held steady at 24. The class includes three Arab Americans, an ethnic group represented for the first time in recent years, as well as three Native Americans and one multicultural student.

 

The class has impressive academic credentials. A full 63 percent earned a high school grade-point average of 3.7 or above, with 37 percent averaging 4.0 or higher. Nearly three-quarters ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class, with about one-fourth in the top 1 percent. They have taken an average of four AP courses and four science units. Nearly 60 percent have studied calculus.

 

Critical reading and writing scores on the SAT improved slightly, with the middle 50 percent achieving in the range of 630-730 (critical reading) and 630-710 (writing). In math, the range was identical to last year, with the middle 50 percent scoring 610-690. The middle range of ACT scores was 28-32, a point higher than last year.

 

Kenyon's top five overlap schools this year, in order, were: Oberlin, Carleton, Middlebury, Bowdoin, and Grinnell colleges.

 

The class skews female, with 54 percent women, 46 percent men. Forty-five percent of the class hails from the Middle Atlantic states or New England. Twenty-six percent come from the Midwest, with 15 percent of the class made up of Ohio residents. Nearly 20 percent have made their way to Gambier from the West and Southwest combined, while 10 percent attended high school in the South.

 

The incoming class brings increasingly international flavor to the Hill. Approximately 10 percent of the class have international status, up 2 percent from last year, including 19 non-U.S. citizens, 15 who hold dual citizenship, five permanent residents, and seven U.S. citizens living outside the U.S.

 

It is a trend among sought after universities.

Kenyon is located close enough to the growing columbus metro.  And that does seem to have an effect.

As a metro and cities wealth and job base grows and ages, the universities and institutions within the city and metro are affected.  More people want to stay in the their city and do not want to go away, many babyboomers kids are in college and there was a slight 80s babyboom which is causing many colleges to turn to universities or offer more on campus housing.

 

In columbus, Otterbein college in Westerville is more selective and growing.  Ohio Dominican University was just a commuter college in 1999.  Now it has dorms, is building more, and has expanded to the internet, building satalite campuses, growing majors etc. etc.  Capital University in Bexley is harder to get in to and has more dorms.  Ohio State is growing because of its own goals, but also many kids in columbus do not want to move so Columbus State Community College has become the largest community college in the state, which then sends off all of its 2 year students to most likely one of the growing local 4 year universities.  Franklin University in downtown is also growing and expanding and buying other buildings downtown.

 

Now, other universities in the state have made big transitions like Wright State in Dayton.  The state has needs for more students, so many in state universities are growing.  I cannot think of them off the top of my head but there are some state universities that I have heard are seeing a decline in enrollement. 

Seanguy, you should read the article before posting about Columbus' effect on colleges. In Kenyon's case, the growth of Columbus has nothing to do with their increased selectivity. If anything, it would be a detriment. Kenyon is located in a very serene and hilly area that serves as great recruitment tool. Sprawl would only lessen that. Lastly, only 15% of Kenyon's students are from Ohio (45% come from the mid-atlantic states and new england). Its a much more popular school on the east coast than it is here in Ohio. Columbus' growth is not supplying the additional applicants.