Students stay, despite recession

The financial crisis may affect the number of students returning to the same university for their sophomore year of college, which will mark not only the lives of those students, but also individual school budgets that rely heavily on student tuition for operating costs.

Although Boston University is a heavily tuition-dependent school, BU’s retention rate is above the national average. Boston University had a 91 percent retention rate for the Class of 2011, BU spokesman Colin Riley said. BU’s average freshman retention rate is 90.5 percent of the freshman class, according to the U.S. News and World Report.

The national retention rate, however was 65.7 percent, the lowest since 1989, according to a January 22 press release by ACT, Inc., a standardized test company,

Riley said the administration is doing all it can to preserve the school’s high retention rate. However, it is too early to determine how many students will not be returning next semester, Riley said.

In a Jan. 12 letter to faculty and staff, BU President Robert Brown wrote that ‘the ability of our students and their families to continue to afford a Boston University education in the face of the recessionary pressures that they undoubtedly are experiencing ‘ is an even larger concern than the school’s shrinking endowment.

In the letter, Brown said the Office of Financial Assistance has done a great job ‘helping us retain students who might otherwise not be able to continue at Boston University.’ Brown said the financial aid reserves would be drastically increased for the next semester, in anticipation of a spike in financial need.

‘Those [budgetary] determinations are not definitive at this point,’ Riley said. ‘But certainly, the guiding principle is to be able to expand that and ensure that as many of our students are able to continue their education as possible.’

Riley said student tuition comprises up to 50 percent of the school’s operating budget, meaning a drop in student enrollment would end up hurting the BU budget. Riley said BU’s retention rate is usually influenced by other factors besides cost, such as academic performance.

Harriet Brand, spokeswoman for the Princeton Review, which publishes an annual list of college rankings, said it was obvious why prospective students like to know that the college they’re interested in has a good retention rate.

‘Colleges that have good retention rates are the ones that are most successful at educating students,’ she said.

Brand said that students do not go to universities just for the experience.

‘They want to graduate,’ she said.

According to an ACT survey, inadequate financial resources was one of the most prominent reasons students gave for leaving their four-year university, students said.

College of General Studies freshman Chelsey Eccleston said she considers not returning to BU every semester, because of the high costs of tuition. Tuition for undergraduates for the 2008-’09 academic year is $36,540, while room and board cost $11,418, according to the website. Undergraduate student fees add up to $510.

‘The price of the school sometimes doesn’t seem worth it, I guess,’ Eccleston said.

Michael Ravisi, a former BU student, left the school after only one semester. Ravisi said he came to BU for the pre-dental program, but left when he realized the cost of education would be too much in the end.

‘After talking to pre-dental advisors and doing some research online, I found out if I went to dental school I would be in debt like $300,000,’ Ravisi said.

Brand said that it is difficult to know in advance how much of an effect the financial crisis will have on colleges across the country.

‘This is a really unique situation,’ Brand said, noting that lenders across the country have dried up. ‘But I think the real situation is how the colleges are going to help currently enrolled students, because they have finite resources and they are losing money.’