CC demographics shift as financial aid sinks

While families that make over $200,000 per year may represent only 3.4 percent of the United States population, at Colorado College the figure is a good indication that they may be paying full tuition- and the full-pay demographic has risen to well over 60 percent of the student body.

As the percentage of students on financial aid decreases and campus demographics slowly slide toward the more elite, the school has instituted a suggested $6 million ballpark figure to spend on aid for incoming students, in an effort to break the boom/bust cycle of financial aid.

THE YO-YO PHENOMENON

For years, the college has seen great fluctuation between classes as the ethnic, socioeconomic and academic characteristics of each incoming year vary with the amount of available financial aid. Admissions spent between $5.1 and $5.4 million on need-based financial aid for the incoming classes in 2006 and 2007, providing at least partial funding for roughly 40 percent of each class. In 2008, however, a million dollar bonus in financial aid money lead to a $7 million expenditure on incoming students that year. The school admitted a large class with a high percentage of students on financial aid. The following year, however, as the economy hit a downturn, CC had to maintain the financial aid they had granted to the previous class with a smaller budget. This left little money to provide to new students and the percent of the incoming class on financial aid fell to 29.6 percent.

“There’s been a bit of a yo-yo phenomenon,” Mark Hatch, Vice President of Enrollment, said, explaining that especially diverse or talented classes are typically followed by more homogenous or slightly less academically strong classes because the need to keep paying money from a financial boom year causes a bust in having enough funds to recruit top students the next year.

As financial aid has shifted, it has affected the college’s ability to fund some of the most academically desirable students. The college measures prospective student achievement based on “human capital” reports, which are independent assessments of students based on analysis of test scores, GPA, class standing and other factors. Individuals are placed in different bands based on those factors.

Hatch called 2008 a “banner year” for the number of students who were in high academic bands, but added that it was an especially large enrollment year overall. In 2008, there were 185 newly enrolled students who fell into the category of Human Capital Bands one and two, accounting for 34 percent of the class. In 2009 there were 154 such students, making up 29 percent of the class. This decline in the number of incoming students in top academic bands is a trend that will likely continue at least into the next incoming class.

“This year we’re still doing the numbers, but we’re concerned,” Hatch said.

LOSING GROUND ON FINANCIAL AID

The overarching conversation about financial aid and admissions has been more persistent and long-coming than just the spike of 2008 and the dip of 2009. The Committee on Admission and Financial Aid (CAFA) released a report during Block 6 of this year addressing what they called “insufficient scholarship aid.” The committee, composed of five faculty members and three administrative staff, was created a few years ago to provide an advisory perspective to Admissions.

“There is one point on which we are solidly united,” Political Science professor Bob Loevy said, speaking on behalf of the committee as it presented a report to the faculty during Block 6. “Colorado College is not spending enough money on scholarships to get the top scholars that we want or the minority students, from all economic levels, that we want.”

CAFA reported that based on 2009 statistics, CC ranks last among its 12 peer schools and last among the Associated Colleges of the Midwest with regard to financial aid percentages. Of the US News and World Report ranked top 50 Liberal Arts Colleges the college ranked 46th for financial aid in 2008, a position that will likely fall to 49th or 50th once the 2009 data is in, according to the CAFA report.

Even with merit aid included in the numbers, CC is still well below its peer colleges in percent of students receiving aid. In addition, CC has few “deep need” students who require large scholarships. Compared to 64 similar schools, CC ranked 59th in the percent of students eligible for government Pell grants, government grants which give need-based aid to low-income students.

In a telephone interview, President Richard Celeste described himself as concerned about the financial aid situation.

“We have lost ground in the last couple of years, which is disappointing to me,” he said. “By any comparison we don’t do as much as our peer institutions in this area.”

Celeste, however, defended aspects of aid including the college’s efforts to meet full demonstrated need of recipients and maintain that throughout all four years.

Students on financial aid have been decreasing on a long-term basis and Roberto Garcia, Director of Admissions, called the decline “incremental.” The school has seen roughly a ten percent reduction in students on financial aid in ten years.

As CC administered aid has declined, the number of students at the college receiving federal aid has diminished. During the 2004-2005 school year, 911 CC students received federal grants or loans, a number which declined to 701 in 2008-2009. Students receiving Pell Grants dropped from 271 in 2004-2005 to 161 in 2008-2009. Parents who took out government loans to send their children to CC dropped from 346 to just 53 during that time. 

Music professor Michael Grace, chair of CAFA, called the financial aid data “alarming.”

“I have nothing against kids who come from families who can pay their tuition, but I would like to see more economic diversity because I think this college needs to keep in touch with the world,” he said.

BUT WHO GETS IN?

Another finding of the CAFA report was that the admit rate for full pay students is 56 percent, compared to less than 23 percent for students who demonstrate financial need.

The school defended the “need-sensitive” admission process, saying that they want to be able to fund every student they admit. To initially admit students based on merit and then determine their financial situation, they said, would not be desirable.

“If you go on need-blind you are knowingly admitting a bunch of students who won’t be able to come- we feel it’s kind of cynical,” Grace said.

“We don’t play games with students,” Garcia said. “It’s not morally defensible to say ‘You’ve been admitted to Colorado College, now you’ve got to come up with $50,000.’”

He added that CC didn’t want students to have to take out huge outside loans in order to come to college.

As CC looks for the best students it can find and, within that group, a high number of those who can pay, it is working on maintaining relationships with schools where it has gotten students before. These so-called “feeder schools” include high schools across the country where CC has consistently gotten the students it wants. Though Admissions emphasized that feeder schools have always existed and most of them have remained the same through the decades, the focus on feeders has become more important with more limited aid.

“Yes, no question,” Hatch said when asked if there has been a greater emphasis on feeder schools in recent years.

“There’s a marketing and client and business component to what we do,” Garcia said. “We want the most talented students we can find and we don’t do that randomly or arbitrarily- we are going to look at where we have historically gotten good students.”

Hatch emphasized that national demographics make it only logical to focus attention on institutions which have the most CC-inclined students. In some parts of the country, he said, people are disinclined to live in a cold environment. Others have populations which place more value on large universities or trade schools. More conservative regions have limited interest in a politically left-wing campus. When these exclusions overlap, he said, it leaves only small areas of the nation where individuals fit into the limited CC demographic.

“You get 350 high schools that are ripe for recruiting for us,” he said.

Major schools over the years have included Illinois township schools New Trier and Evanston, Englewood schools Cherry Creek and Kent-Denver Country Day, Connecticut prep schools Taft and Loomis Chaffee, nearby public schools including Palmer and a handful of acadamies from across the country.

Admissions said the relationship with high schools is not akin to an agreement to admit more students in exchange for more applicants.

“We will say ‘we have admitted students from your high school with this profile,’” Garcia said. “‘If this type of student applies it’s likely or unlikely that we could admit them.’”

Garcia said that when counselors from the top feeder high schools call to push the virtues of a particular student, Admissions may not necessarily comply with their wishes, but will certainly take the time to call them back and listen to what they have to say.

“We give them a lot of attention,” he said. “The unfortunate thing is we don’t have that relationship with all schools. The kid from Basalt, Colorado- that counselor’s not going to call me.”

The school indicated that, in the end, it is most important for them to devote recruitment resources to the locations where they are most likely to find students who are academically, culturally and sometimes financially most likely to find a place at CC. Admission counselor Michael Shum, described the relationship as: “Paramount- especially with private institutions.”

“Feeder schools have produced college-going students because of the communities they feed from too,” Garcia said.

THE CHANGING FACE OF CC

No doubt, the demographics of CC are shifting. Last year, 85 percent of admitted CC students came from families making more than $100,000 annually, though only about 16 percent of American families fall into that category. Less than 5 percent of students come from families making under $50,000 per year- the median household income in the US.

“We are not a middle-class college,” Student Government President David Carlson said.

Many in the school administration, however, maintain that CC remains an institution of mid-tier individuals.

“The vast majority of our kids come from families I would call middle-class,” Celeste said.

Others on campus, however, have begun talking about CC students getting wealthier.

“Are our classes becoming more affluent? Yeah, they are,” said Garcia.

Conversations about class structure on campus prompted Sierra Fleenor, former student body President and current Student Life Specialist, to start a socioeconomic discussion series which has run since fifth block last year. The talks have drawn periodic groups of four to 20 students and staff to share thoughts about the complexities of class and its place at CC.

“We have been talking quite a lot about class because of what the demographics of the incoming classes of the last couple years have looked like,” said Amanda Udis-Kessler, Director of Institutional Research and Planning, who led one of the discussions.

Udis-Kessler said major discussions have centered around how different students spend block breaks, how new student orientation can cater more to working parents and, on a faculty level, whether people on campus interact with custodial and food-service staff. As well, Fleenor added, there has been some talk of class guilt, pride and responsibilities within social stations.

Institutional Research was unable to share any socioeconomic data for this article.

The face of CC has seen demographic changes in past decades, both economic and ethnic. The percentage of students who hail from public schools has gradually moved from 75 percent in 1999 to 53 percent in 2009, while students from private schools have nearly doubled from 17 to 33 percent. The number of students from high schools classified as “Other” has also increased steadily.

The percentage of foreign students has increased significantly in a few recent years. These students made up an average of 1.6 percent of the student population between 1999 and 2006, but have composed an average 3.9 percent of the population since then.

The percentage of students who are American ethnic minorities has not followed any observable trend, but has increased and decreased alternately, ranging from 12 percent to 20 percent of the campus population since 1999. The amount of financial aid would seem to affect, however, the ethnic makeup of the college. The financial aid-heavy class which entered the school in 2008 included 127 enrolling minorities compared to 94 in 2009.

Garcia declined to provide the Catalyst with any specific data pertaining to demographics of students who receive financial aid, citing concerns of racial profiling.

Hatch said that, off the top of his head, the percent of American ethnic minorities on financial aid was likely between 60 and 75 percent, but that the majority of those were not deep-need aid packages. He said that a survey two years ago found that most minorities who received aid came from families which made between $75,000 and $100,000 per year, while most Caucasians who received aid came from families making between $100,000 and $120,000 annually.

Hatch said there has been more recruitment of low and no-need international students, but that competition for foreign students is difficult, as most go to major universities or coastal areas. 

Many on campus pointed to the cutting of the football program as detrimental to campus diversity. Multiple faculty members noted that the football program brought in disadvantaged students and, more generally, students who were different from the rest of campus.

Grace said he was upset when football was cut because of many interesting football players he had taught in class.

“They brought something different- a kind of spirit,” he said.

Another dynamic of college demographics is the concern over losing Colorado applicants. Admissions emphasized that they need to have more conversations about in-state students and efforts to pay attention to the school’s backyard.

“That’s a huge concern to us,” Garcia said. “Colorado’s an export state- we’re losing that battle.”

“Our competitor schools are poaching Coloradans,” Hatch said.

Of the 552 students who have committed to come to CC beginning next year, 61 percent are coming from public schools- the largest percentage since 2005. Only about 34 percent of the incoming students reported their class rank, but of those who did, 58 percent were in the top ten percent of their graduating class. Of the students in the top ten percent of their classes, 83 percent were awarded aid.

Admissions emphasized that they usually lose 15-40 committed students over the summer, so the statistics on the class will change. 

All of these demographic aspects have influenced the debate over what the face of CC is, and what it should be. 

“I’ve always felt since we’ve been here that there is a kind of an identity crisis of this place,” said Feminist and Gender Studies Professor Eileen Bresnahan in a conversation with the Catalyst first semester. “It doesn’t really know what it is.”

One effort to reconcile the question of the desired CC student body culture into manageable data is the “Whom do we want to teach?” survey launched earlier this semester. The survey asked faculty members to list the names of three students they think most enriched CC intellectual life. Admissions will then pull the test scores, admission and demographic data for the listed students in order to help them quantify desirable traits and possibly re-work admission benchmarks.

Hatch said turning the names into numbers would be a summer project. He said that he received 70-75 responses to the survey, representing less than half of the faculty. Still, Admissions said the data would be useful in narrowing down attributes that they can look for in prospective students.

“If we can find an answer and bottle it, maybe we can apply it to selection,” Garcia said. “I hope CC will continue to put its emphasis on the ideal student.”

PAYING FOR LIBERAL ARTS

Affordability remains the biggest challenge for the college as it seeks to draw the ideal student. Even among relatively wealthy families, the $50,750 estimated annual cost of attending CC can be an impossible pill to swallow. Because of this, the school grants financial aid to students which may by any other standards be considered high-income. CC Admissions defines “middle income” as families which make between $120,000 and $180,000 per year, and families making upwards of $200,000 may even qualify for aid. Financial aid examines many circumstances of families, including how many children are in college at similarly expensive schools.

“We have financial aid going to students who have cars on campus with ski racks and are living a relatively privileged life,” Hatch said.

The balance remains difficult between keeping college costs down overall and providing financial aid- two-thirds of which comes from tuition money. Celeste noted that college payment can sometimes be most difficult for middle-income families which may not be eligible for financial aid but who still cannot afford the high price tag of the college.

“College costs have increased disproportionately to family incomes,” Hatch said.

Adding to the challenges of making the school affordable, CC has had consistent difficulty with fundraising, particularly in securing gifts from alumni. Alumni donation rates for CC hover around 31 percent- low compared to other schools.

“There has been a tradition of not organizing our alumni or asking for money as effectively as we could,” Celeste said. “It takes time to change the culture.”

One step the college has taken to assist financial aid is to finalize the school budget earlier in the year. This step was taken in order to allow Admissions to know earlier what the financial aid budget would be and take it into consideration when looking at early decision applicants.

Celeste noted that last year, though the school budget was cut drastically and the college eliminated 70 positions and three sports teams, the percent of the budget allocated to financial aid remained stable. Still, the difficulties remain.

“My principle effort these days is to convince people to invest in financial aid and the endowment,” Celeste said.

INTO THE FUTURE

In the midst of financial problems and social debate, perhaps the most curious effort of the college is to downsize.

“We need to reduce the size of the student body,” Hatch said.

Hatch said the target is to bring the student body of over 2,000 down to 1,975. He said part of this need is based on the limited physical size of the campus, but that the major consideration is class size. Classes at CC have risen over the last few years from an average size of 14 to 16. It will be difficult, however, to decrease the size of CC with the current need for tuition dollars. 

Some at the college consider the decreasing financial aid and diversity to be a temporary problem.

“In better economic times we’ll be able to swing the pendulum back a bit,” said Jessica Raab, Associate Director of Admission, in an interview first semester.

However, others remain nervous that the financial aid situation could have a real and lasting effect on the college.

“I think there is a great deal of concern,” Bresnahan said. “I think that CC to some extent plays games about this issue.”

“If we continue on the track we’re on now, aid will level out at 29 percent and that won’t be good- we’ll become known as a rich person school,” Grace said.

“Will we get too expensive? Will we become a school just for the privileged?” Garcia questioned.

“I’m concerned. I’m concerned that families are less able or less willing to pay for a CC education,” Hatch said.

The Admissions office has seen a decline in CC hopefuls by several hundred each year since 2008, which Garcia called “an erosion of our applicant pool.” No one knows whether this decline is the result of applicants being scared away by CC’s reputation as it becomes more academically prestigious and selective, or scared away by its price tag. Though they could qualify for financial aid, Garcia said people were “skittish” about even the prospect of paying $50,000 per year.

Hatch suggested that the question is bigger than CC, that it is the question of the future of liberal arts education. He said that only four percent of college-going individuals attend a liberal arts institution and that, as costs continue to rise, the question will become inevitable of what such an education is worth, and why one should commit so much money to it.

As well, in light of the controversies over financial aid and demographic diversity, Hatch brought up the question of to what degree an elite institution that exists to educate the magnificent rather than the masses has a responsibility to somewhat reflect the population at large. At CC, the question is tantamount to the student experience.

“People invent their lives here,” Garcia said. “And we ought to be able to shape how they invent those lives.”

Alex Kronman contributed reporting to this article.