Close to the nest: Since Sept. 11, college students less willing to venture very far

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2002 | 10:05 a.m.

Pushing the kids out of the nest is a little tougher these days. Life seems more fragile, and family seems even more precious since 9-11.

As a consequence, a university's reputation is less important than a school's proximity to the homes of prospective students, according to a recent national study.

Darren Miles, 19, an incoming freshman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, provides an example of students' apparent willingness to stay closer to home.

"At first my mom was really worried," said Miles of Inglewood, Calif. "I was going to go farther, like the East Coast, but that's too far. And if anything happens, it'd be hard to get back."

Convenience and economic concerns are foremost on the minds of students when choosing a college, says the study of 323 colleges and universities, including UNLV, conducted by Noel-Levitz, a consulting firm owned by student loan company Sallie Mae. The goal of the survey was to determine the impact the events of Sept. 11 had on enrollment at schools, both private and public, nationwide.

Some schools are scaling down nationwide recruiting efforts and attempting to draw students whose families live within driving distance of the school, the study found.

"We have heard students say that, 'I don't really want to be more than a day's drive from home,' " Stuart Tennant, associate vice president of enrollment management at UNLV, said. "Right now, though, it's too early to tell for us whether it will affect our enrollment."

The terrorist attacks occurred after students had enrolled for the fall semester, so it will be tough to fully gauge the impact of the events on university enrollment until this fall, the study's authors say.

"Enrollment directors at colleges have asked us repeatedly for some perspective on the way in which Sept. 11 will affect applications and enrollment," said Dana Low, a senior executive at Noel-Levitz. "Winter is an important period in the enrollment cycle to get a sense of trends for the coming year before it is too late."

UNLV has focused recruiting efforts on high school students in Nevada, Utah and Southern California, Tennant said.

Nearly one-third of the higher education institutions studied reported the same type of shift in recruiting strategy, the Noel-Levitz study said.

But is fear dictating students' choices? One education expert said there are other factors, such as cost, that should be considered.

"One of the difficulties with 9-11 is there are multi-faceted effects associated with it. Is it distance or is it cost that might be changing student behavior?" said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, a Washington-based organization.

"UNLV wasn't too close and it wasn't too far," said E.J. Moore, 20, a UNLV incoming sophomore from Inglewood. "But, I'm on financial aid, so that was the most important thing. Tuition here isn't that expensive. It was still cheaper than a lot of places I was looking at, so I chose to go here."

Nassirian said that because private institutions are more expensive, often more selective and rely heavily on out-of-state students, they are likely to experience a decline in enrollment.

"It could be that public institutions see a spike in enrollment because of this," he said.

Tulane University, a modest-sized private research institution in New Orleans, polled 35,000 applicants in October to learn whether the closer- to-home theory would affect future enrollment. About 25 percent of Tulane's applicants live in the Northeast.

The October study found that students were less likely to be interested in universities that weren't within driving distance. They were also less inclined to choose an expensive institution, Richard Whiteside, Tulane's vice president of enrollment management, said.

As a result of the study, the school began an aggressive marketing campaign. A mass e-mail, including information about Tulane, were sent to prospective freshmen students, and those who didn't wish to fly to the school were sent a virtual tour of the campus in the form of a DVD.

Applications are up 20 percent from the same time last year, Whiteside said.

UNLV has received 2,000 more applications from prospective students compared to the same period last year, Tennant said.

The litmus test for all institutions will come in May, when students who don't plan to attend in the fall are dropped from class rosters.

"We still don't know whether students will show up," Whiteside said. "This is a business where you hope for the best and plan for the worst."