Photo from the De LaSalle Honors Ceremony from 2022, this years event took place on Sunday, March 3rd.
@MANHATTANEDU/INSTAGRAM
By Lauren Raziano, Senior Writer
Manhattan College’s Office of Admissions is in full swing for “yield season”, focusing on the accepted student cohort and converting them to committed students through the Saint LaSalle Honors Ceremony and accepted students days.
Spring semester is the yield season for admissions, where universities determine the number of students offered admission and those who have accepted. In 2021, there were 3,694 students enrolled at Manhattan College with an overall enrollment yield of 9.04%.
President Milo Riverso, Ph.D., wrote in an email to the college on Feb. 5 describing the decline in overall student enrollment, nationally and at Manhattan College. There are currently 3,495 enrolled students, with a decline expected, as reported by the president’s email.
“During the past four to five years, Manhattan College has experienced an approximate 30% decline in student enrollment due to various factors, including an overall change in how higher education is viewed in the U.S. (including almost daily discussions in the media about the long-term values of higher education) and the pandemic which saw us lose significant numbers of students, particularly those residing on campus leaving us with numerous dorm rooms unoccupied,” Riverso wrote.
Director of admissions and alumnus of MC Benjamin Boivin has recognized the national decline in college enrollment as the “enrollment cliff.”
“Nationwide, the decline has begun, it’s called the enrollment cliff,” Boivin said. “If you look back 18 years ago, when a lot of these incoming students were born, there was a recession in 2008 so families were less likely to have children in this country. Now, 16 years later when these students are going to school in 2024, you’re going to start seeing a drop in college-age students just naturally because they weren’t being born. So that’s definitely making a difference.”
Boivin said the trends of admitted students are reflective of the interest in majors, even with the shift from six academic schools to down to three.
“There’s a lot of interest in all the different programs, engineering being our largest school, probably the bulk of the applications,” Boivin said. “Business is very, very popular and now that we’ve consolidated schools into the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences, there’s a lot of education interest because it is the hallmark of what we’re known for as a Lasaillan school. Computer science is one of the most popular majors in the country right now, so definitely our computer science program will continue to grow.”
Evelyn Orellana, associate director of undergraduate admissions, said that prospective students are searching for a Lasallian education founded in liberal arts.
“You are seeing that students are more inclined to pursue a liberal arts foundation because they are looking to diversify their area of interest,” Orellana said. “So they are applying to engineering but those same students are interested in business and the performing arts. So I think the fact that Manhattan College offers students that opportunity is definitely generating interest.”
Boivin and Orellana have been working on the upcoming Saint LaSalle Honors Ceremony, where admitted students are honored with a medal for their academic achievements during high school. The event will take place on March 3 in the Chapel of DeLaSalle and His Brothers.
“We’ve hosted this for a couple of decades now and it’s for all of our top accepted students of this cycle,” Bovin said. “We invite them to campus and we give them an award with the idea of introducing them to Lasallian education.”
The Saint LaSalle Honors Ceremony is a high-yield event for the college, as Boivin reports that about 220 families are coming to campus, with nearly 60% of these prospective students committing to MC.
“A general yield event will see between like 60-65% ‘show rate’, so students who sign up and students who come,” Boivin said. “This event actually tends to be the highest of our ‘show rates’ because it’s a very prestigious award.”
Although the pandemic years led to a shift in resident and commuter populations at MC, the new $20 million renovations for Horan Hall have also motivated more students to visit MC and become campus residents.
“COVID days, four years ago, we weren’t allowed to travel anywhere so we could not go into these high schools and recruit students throughout the country,” Boivin said. “So that natural resident population that we had coming from places like California, Washington D.C., Chicago, Florida, southern Jersey and northern Massachusetts, all went away for a couple of years because we couldn’t talk to them. We have these brand new $20 million renovated apartments, I think we’re going to see more of a surge of students wanting to live here on campus.”
For interested students, the preferred application deadline is March 1, but students can still apply and be accepted on a rolling basis to Manhattan College. The accepted students’ days will be on Saturday, April 13 and Saturday, April 27, including personal sessions with the deans of the three schools and various faculty.
“I would say the acceptance events are some of our most exciting events of the year because everybody on campus loves Manhattan College,” Boivin said. “They’ve all been accepted here. I think the presentations by our deans, in the presence of our faculty and our chairs, really makes a difference because it is a personal touch.”
Hyllary Jean-Baptiste, a senior tour guide, motivates prospective students to visit campus and trust their gut about where they want to attend.
“My favorite thing about being a tour guide is being able to connect with students that do come and visit campus and getting to know them,” Jean-Baptiste said. “The biggest thing that I like to say on my tour is to go with your heart, follow your gut, and no matter what decision you make, it’s not going to be a wrong decision. At the end of the day, everything in life is a lesson, life will teach you something and you’re gonna learn from it.”
Orellana encourages students to seek out community at Manhattan College.
“I would say that if a student is looking for community, they’ll definitely find it at Manhattan,” Orellana said. “I think there are so many different interests here so students will definitely find their fit. I encouraged them to explore every opportunity they have, whether that’s a major, an activity, an internship, and most importantly, know that they will have support on campus.”