Walsh began the 2020 year like many other colleges with enrollment challenges of declining demographics, fierce competitiveness among colleges and price sensitivity of our students. Walsh combatted this early on with several new initiatives -- a tuition freeze, Maroon and Gold Career promise and marketing strategies to help our degree completion and graduate programs gain more visibility within the market. At that time, applications for freshmen were up, degree completion program increased credit hours by 18% from fall semester and many of the graduate programs marked record enrollment. As the campus successfully pivoted to online for COVID-19, so did the enrollment team. Throughout the spring semester utilizing Zoom and FaceTime sessions, Walsh offered personalized campus visits, informational sessions, orientations and grad Open Houses. The admissions team, coaches, faculty and staff across the campus pulled together to create personalized experience for students to engage with Walsh.
As Walsh continues to track the yield of the efforts put forth in the Spring, we are hopeful to welcome over 420 new students (freshmen and transfers) this fall, as well as a significant enrollment increase in our degree completion online program of nearly 20% from last fall. We are anticipating record enrollment for our Grad programs, MSN and DNP programs are up 52%, as well as full DPT and OT meeting enrollment quotas. Our biggest challenge has been our returning students, with many of our students feeling the financial impact making it difficult to return for the fall. However, with the new 8-week semesters, we will enhance our “recruit back” program and we are hopeful to see them in October. The pandemic has also greatly impacted our international students, borders are closed in many countries making it difficult for students to continue their educational journey here in the U.S. The impact of this pandemic on college enrollment is still unknown even for Walsh, but as many universities are seeing nearly a 9-15% decline, Walsh’s enrollment is holding with an overall expected decline of less than 4%, it is because CAVNATION came together to support our students and letting them know we are here every step of the way.