I think the issue is that most of the smaller, less competitive, liberal arts colleges are pretty pricey for a lot of kids. They give merit but not enough to make it attractive.

To be a viable option for us, a donut hole family, we would need to get enough merit to make it affordable. A lot of liberal arts colleges just don't give enough merit to the average kids looking to go there.

Xavier, DePaul, St. Mary's (CA), Seton Hall

Even the "known from athletics" are struggling. So is the University of Michigan's system.

Drexel I'm not surprised as it's as a poor man's Northeastern.

The mid and lower tier SLACs have been struggling for years. I'm a little surprised by Embry Riddle's Arizona campus struggling. That is normally a ticket to a good job. Rose Hulman, too.

Anonymous wrote:I was mildly surprised to see flagships like Kentucky on here. Catholic is on here. I don't think they were on this list last year along with Dayton and Xavier.

Xavier moved this year from rolling admissions to a process with EA and RD submission deadlines. I suspect this screwed with the pace/timing of applications received and thus their algorithm.

Keep in mind that listing on NACAC’s list is voluntary. There are plenty more schools out there with space; the higher-ranked ones especially are not going to publicly broadcast that.

I have been checking this in case any of the schools DC is considering for safeties pop up.

Not sure why this would be a factor. A true safety will, by definition, have a weak yield. Applicants will be somewhere else if they have a choice. And you should choose safeties on the basis of “would you be happy if you had to go there” and it’s hard to imagine yield would have anything to do with that.

Anonymous wrote:Skidmore is so great!

It’s just for transfer students though. The freshman class at Skidmore has been filled.

Skidmore is so great!

Anonymous wrote:I have been checking this in case any of the schools DC is considering for safeties pop up. 277 schools are still accepting applications. So far, SLACs such as Ithaca College, Skidmore (transfer applicants) and Sewanee (also transfers) are on there Skidmore is 36 on the SLACs list and Sewanee is 45. They have now been joined by Duquesne and on Friday Drexel, 86 on the national list. Despite all the competitiveness at T50 national and T25 SLACs there is a lot of weakness further down the lists.

https://www.nacacnet.org/college-openings-update/

Not sure about Skidmore, but Sewanee accepts transfer apps late every year and has for a long time. It's just their policy. I don't think they're having enrollment issues Their freshman class last year was much larger than average.

Dublin and St. Andrews? I thought those schools were more selective. No?

Eckerd has always surprised me. It has some strong programs. Flagler, Florida Southern and Rollins seem to do OK. I am surprised Florida LACs aren't more popular.

As a correction to the above, Skidmore's yield was 26%.

If you are interested in admission yields, why not check actual recent admission yields, such as through IPEDS? By this source, Skidmore's admission yield was 23%, for example.

I was mildly surprised to see flagships like Kentucky on here. Catholic is on here. I don't think they were on this list last year along with Dayton and Xavier.

There are already International schools like St. Andrews and UCD that are still accepting applications.

More schools will have openings as the spring progresses.

I was surprised to see Drexel added. I don’t think they were on the list last year. I could be wrong. The fact that they waited until after May 1st to be added indicates they had enough applications, but their yield fell short, as OP said. I know they have been having publicized financial issues which may have scared some students away. Anecdotally, they also don’t give great aid and are high-priced. They also are switching from a quarter schedule to a semester schedule, so there is probably uncertainty how well that will work with their existing co-op model. Overall, PA and NJ state schools are going to be cheaper than Drexel for many students.

It's the same applicants all applying only to the most competitive colleges. The rich get richer, the poor...

I have been checking this in case any of the schools DC is considering for safeties pop up. 277 schools are still accepting applications. So far, SLACs such as Ithaca College, Skidmore (transfer applicants) and Sewanee (also transfers) are on there Skidmore is 36 on the SLACs list and Sewanee is 45. They have now been joined by Duquesne and on Friday Drexel, 86 on the national list. Despite all the competitiveness at T50 national and T25 SLACs there is a lot of weakness further down the lists.

https://www.nacacnet.org/college-openings-update/