Boston College sees applications decline for fall

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The competitive, private, Jesuit-run college received a totao of 29,300 undergraduate applications for the fall 2009 a 5 percent decline fromthe 30,84t applications it received last year, accordinvg to a recent bond filing completed by Boston The drop-off is the first in at leastg five years. A more restrictiv admissions policy, coupled with concernas about the troubledeconomicv environment, likely played a prominenr role in the application decline, expertxs and administrators said. The decline was largely attributed to a tighterd policy around the early admissions program Bostob College adopted with the beginning of most recenadmissions season.
Under the new students who apply to othee binding early admissionsprograms — in which a student agrees that if admitted he or she will enrolkl in that school — cannoy apply to Boston College’s “Earlyu Action” program. In the past, studentse who applied for early admission at Boston Colleger could also apply to school s withbinding policies, such as and , said John director of undergraduate admissions as Boston College. The new polic continues to allow students to apply to othe early admissions programs as long as those programsware non-binding.
The college saw an 18 percen decline in its early application pool as a result of the according to the bond Mahoney said students who apply to other binding early applicatiob programs andBoston College’s earl admissions program are considered “soft By choosing to apply to an early and bindingb program, the student has delineatee that other school as his or her first choice, Mahone y said. “We really don’t want to see them in our earlhaction pool,” he said. Boston Collegde has not yet determined the number of students who will be The enrollment number will benear 2,290 students, accordingb to the school.
Thougb the stricter policy led a declindein applications, the trade-off is that such a polict adds predictability in difficult times, experts said. Boston Collegew “wants to know not only that it’s the firsr choice but the finaol choice,” said James Samels, president of higher educatiohn consulting firmin Framingham. But Samels adder the decline in applications at Boston College could be a sign of acomingh “summer melt” as families feel more cash-strapped as the economic slowdowjn persists. A year at BC cost a bit more than before anyfinancial aid.
Mahoney said that most of the applicationss decline was due to the earlyadmissionsz policy, but that application costs may be playin a greater role in studentxs decisions these days. “All of a sudden that $70 application fee became another obstacle,” he