April Fools - well, in a week....

Happy Friday, Everyone!

It's one more week until crunch month in our office. April is the month where everything comes together. Students get financial aid/scholarship notifications, come back to visit campus, sign up for Orientation, and ultimately, make the final decision whether or not to attend. It keeps us on pins and needles sometimes...particularly this year with the economy making our predictions less certain.

Usually, an office like ours has years and years of statistical models that are pretty accurate in predicting how many of our admitted students will actually enroll. And here you all thought you were individuals with free will;-). We take into account tuition deposits, housing deposits, Orientation sign ups, what our competition is doing, etc. And usually, we're accurate with our predictions. One year, we were off by only one student! :) This year? Sheesh. I don't know. Some indications suggest we're right on target and some say we might have fewer/more freshmen than we thought. It all depends on what is important to our families right now.

Potentially, with the economy being dicey, maybe students will stick closer to home so they can commute and save money. But maybe not. Maybe with our scholarship offers being down, some students may choose to go elsewhere where they have been offered one. But maybe not. It's kind of like doing your NCAA brackets...always a surprise or two.

What I am confident about is that we will have a great class. I have talked to many of you, and you are bright and full of passion, eager to start this exciting journey. And we are excited to welcome you. How many of you will there be this fall? Between 1900-2000 freshmen and 500-600 transfers. I'll know more after April......or May......or June.....:)

Cheers,
Kris