Edited Oct. 6
In the 2022 college application season, the Baldwin Wallace Admissions Office created new initiatives to increas e enrollment numbers, bringing in the largest class since 2015 with 730 full-time students and record-breaking statistics for the university.
The class of 2027 most notably saw increases in thenumber of first-generation students, up 4 percent, students receiving a Pell Grant, up 5.7 percent, and average incoming high school GPA, going from 3.75 to 3.77 from the previous year.
Within the last recruitment cycle, BW admissions implemented new tactics to draw more students to campus with a Visit Grant tha consists of $2,000 per year to any incoming student, outside of the Conservatory of Music, that visited campus before Dec. 1. Students applying to the university to potentially enroll in fall 2024 are still eligible for the grant if they visit campus before Dec. 1, 2023.
Scott Schulz, vice president of enrollment management, also said the department
enhanced the visiting experience by bringing faculty and student affair cocurricular representatives into the Welcome Center to speak to visiting families. Students are also given 10 stinger bucks during their visit to use at Starbucks or the spirit shops on campus.
“It was a really hospitable all-hands-on-deck effort to try to enhance that visit experience and drive more students to visit the BW community,” Schulz said. “We had a huge surge in the number of students who came and checked out campus as we were at about 700 more visitors over the course of the recruitment cycle.”
Later on in the recruitment cycle, text messages would be sent to parents of potential students to increase engagement during the application and enrollment process.
Once students are enrolled in the university, involvement continues with the parent -family programs that allow parents to still be involved in their student’s college experience.
“Parents are the number one influence on a student on where they decide to go to college and so, [we are] trying to continue to engage parents through that process,” Schulz said.
The class of 2027 is also the first class required to live on campus for three years instead of the former requisite of two years. With increasing enrollment numbers, Kristen Brewer, assistant director of residence life, noted that BW is renovating the Berea Townhouses and may decrease the number of junior and senior buyouts to house the additional number of students in future years.
“We just completed the renovation of North Hall last fall, and we have the Berea Townhouses coming online in 2024,” Brewer said. “So, while space may be tighter, we will still have enough space to house the students that we have on campus.”
Both departments said that the desire to create community from the time the student applies until after they graduate is important. Schulz said that the more involved a student is, the more likely they are to be successful in both their classes and what they take away overall throughout their college experience.
Malak Alrzayiq, a firstyear digital marketing major, decided to enroll at BW because of
scholarships, proximity to home and for the involvement within BW’s community.
“The community is really involved as there’s really something for everyone,” Alrzayiq said. “I thought it was a joke when I first came here, but it turns out there’s literally a club for everyone and it’s all just very welcoming.”
