ALISA OPPENHEIMER
Special to The Leader
Just last April, everyone was buzzing about Fredonia’s largest incoming freshman class coming in the fall of 2019. We now face a new reality.
Over the past year, the drop in yield for both freshmen and transfers has cost the school 200 undergraduate students.
That’s a large number that hopefully doesn’t increase for the years to come.
For now, the question is why?
Fredonia’s application rate went up 16 percent from 2018 to 2019. With the acceptance rate increasing, the rate of people transferring or dropping out within this past year has proven that Fredonia is not perfect.
Many upperclassmen feel it’s due to admissions altering the requirements of getting accepted so that it’s easier to get into the school.
Lauren Collorone, a junior at Fredonia, believes this to be the case.
“I remember when I applied, I truly didn’t think I would get in,” said Collorone. “So many people told me this was a super hard school to get into, and now I feel like so many people I know from home have been accepted, or are currently attending.”
Collorone also knows various students who have left or dropped out.
[RELATED: Enrollment crunch: report shows how hard decline in students has hit University]
“All these students are getting accepted to increase our popularity, but then they actually come here and realize that college can be complicated, and they just give up or try somewhere new,” she said.
We’re all aware that Fredonia isn’t Harvard, but does this rapid drop in students have to do with the tough academics?
“I wouldn’t say the work or classes at Fredonia are extremely easy, but they’re not extremely challenging either,” said freshman Monica Pokoj. “I feel as though some classes are definitely harder than others, and it truly depends on the professors you have.”
Pokoj began attending Fredonia in the fall of 2019; it was always her first choice when she was looking at schools.
She feels as though Fredonia will be where she graduates with the class of 2023.
Although she’s enjoying her time as a student, similar to Collorone, Pokoj personally knew two people that dropped out this past year.
“In my opinion, they just weren’t prepared for the workload that college comes with and just thought it was another excuse to party and not do work, like high school,” said Pokoj. “But, in reality, there are tons of reasons why someone would choose to transfer or drop out completely … Some people might not be prepared, some may just be overwhelmed, or others may seek a different path in life.”
Another thing that may need to be taken into consideration is the way in which Fredonia runs their “Jumpstart” day and orientation for incoming freshman.
“They should be reorganized and split up into more days,” said Pokoj. “It was a ton of information when I went, and it was super overwhelming to have just one day with all this stuff coming at me that I needed to know … That would be super helpful to really prepare incoming freshman to make sure they’re comfortable in the environment and hopefully that in turn, makes them comfortable enough to stay.”
As a transfer to Fredonia herself, Whitney Dann, a junior, feels differently about her first days as a student here.
“Fredonia is a really friendly environment that made transferring very easy,” said Dann.
Dann is involved with multiple clubs and activities on campus and credits that to the way in which Fredonia welcomes its transfer students.
Like many others, Dann feels the only reason students would choose to transfer to other schools, or drop out, would probably be their ignorance in what being a Fredonia student really means.
“Once a student is on campus taking classes, they might realize this isn’t what they had in mind,” said Dann.
While we may not be able to completely get to the bottom of this without hearing from the students who left, what we can do is plan to improve yields for this spring.
[RELATED: Fredonia’s latest enrollment spike is no coincidence]
Academic Affairs is currently reviewing all programs for obstacles for enrolling students.
A plan will later be submitted to the Provost to turn acceptances into deposits within the next five weeks.
Cedrick Howard, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services, has not responded.