Admissions works to slow enrollment decline

By Cole Johnson Staff Writer Over the last decade, the total number of enrolled degree-seeking students at Framingham State decreased by 37%, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research. In Fall 2015, Institutional Research data showed Framingham State enrolled 5,275 degree-seeking students. By Fall 2025, that number had dropped by 1,964, with only 3,311 degree-seeking students enrolled, including both undergraduate and graduate students. Framingham State’s degree-seeking student population increased last fall, rising from 3,373 students in 2023 to 3,448 students in 2024. All other years back to 2015 saw declines in student population, according to Institutional Research data. Data from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE) shows similar enrollment trends among state and community colleges over the same time period. Iris Godes, vice president of Enrollment Management, said schools anticipated reduced enrollment rates. “When the data became available [about] how few children were born in 2008 and 2009, the higher education industry was alerted. ‘You are going to have a cliff in 18 years,’” she said. “Here we are.” The gradually declining number of enrolled college students is commonly referred to as the “demographic cliff.” Following the Great Recession, the drastically lower number of births led to smaller graduating high school classes. “The Northeast saw that cliff a little sooner than other parts of the country,” Godes said. “The Northeast and the Midwest had the biggest hit, and so we've started to see that decline earlier. But now it's really here for everybody.” Godes said she was disappointed to see the decline in enrollment this year after the rise in the student population in 2024. She said FSU has experienced enrollment decline “more so than some of our peers of other state universities. They were course-correcting a little better than Framingham,” she said. Data from the DHE shows enrollment at universities such as Bridgewater State and Worcester State began to recover in Fall 2023 and onward, after following a downward trend similar to Framingham State’s. Bridgewater State’s student body increased by 2% from Fall 2022 to Fall 2024, while Worcester State’s student body increased by 9% over the same period. Godes said in addition to the lower number of eligible students, the COVID-19 pandemic also stunted academic development for many students. “Everybody had horrible experiences in education [during the pandemic]. So that didn't help. And the demographic decline is continuing, and now, [students] feel unprepared for college,” she said. “[Students] weren't on track emotionally, socially,” Godes said. “And those couple of years, depending on what school you were at, you had a lot of online work. You did not achieve in those couple of years to the level that you should have. So now, seniors in high school are coming out more like sophomores in high school. “Academically, they're not quite as college ready … as they used to be,” she added. “I think students felt that as well. And so fewer of them went to college.” Godes said there were more cultural discussions about the value of college, going back to before the pandemic. “The buzz about ‘Is college worth it?’ started to elevate. And so people were questioning, ‘Do I even go to college?’” she said. Godes said attitudes about college experiences have changed as well. Increasingly, more students want to go into college knowing their career path and major. “We're hearing that more and more from students. ‘I don't want to go and figure it out. I need to figure it out before I go,’” she said. “Since I've been here, every year, there's been a decline in the number of undeclared students,” she said. Godes attributed some of this change in attitude to the increasing costs of education. “I think some of it is, ‘I don't want to waste time. I don't want to waste money.’ Cost is a much bigger factor [today],” she said. Additionally, Godes said gap years prevent students from immediately attending college. “The concept of [a] gap year … really ballooned,” she said. “So there were already fewer [students], hard stop. And then of that lower number of people, fewer were going directly to college,” she said. Godes said another factor impacting enrollment was the introduction of free community college in Massachusetts. “One theory that we had with the new initiative of free community college was that that was going to have a huge impact on our enrollment, and that we were going to lose possibly hundreds of students to community colleges,” she said. The Office of Admissions analyzes data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to see where students go who apply to Framingham State, but don’t enroll, according to Godes. The NSC is a nonprofit that provides research services to higher education institutions in North America. “Sixty-five students went to MassBay,” Godes said. “Now, that's a lot, but 371 went to UMass Boston. “So it's been fascinating to me that while we definitely were impacted by [free] community college, it was not the hugest impact that we feared. But it was enough to make a difference, for sure,” she said. Godes said another population she believes FSU lost was undocumented students. “We had undocumented students here, and the state, a couple of years ago, put some money in and a pathway to financial aid for undocumented students that never existed before,” Godes said. She added the DHE allowed students to apply for the aid using the Massachusetts Application for State Financial Aid (MAFSA). “This year, we saw a huge growth initially in those applications,” she said. “Then, those students started saying, ‘I'm not coming for personal reasons.’ “I don’t have the hard data yet,” Godes said. “But I was watching students who said they were going to come and then backed out over the summer. “I would look up what I could about them and when they shared the information, I could see they were DACA, they were undocumented, they were in that pool,” she said. “And of course, they were scared to death, frankly, to go out of their house. “I was at Framingham High School a couple weeks ago,” she said. “And they were saying how their students - never mind they're not applying to college - they're not coming to school they're so afraid.” To address decreasing enrollment, Godes said the Office of Admissions has made significant corrections in how they recruit and fund students. “Students were getting much more attractive financial aid offers to make the cost at the end of the day doable for them,” she said. “For our low-income students, we could cover all of their tuition and fees and a good-sized stipend for books. If they commuted, they paid nothing,” she said. “We also offered a housing grant, which we had in the past, but we increased it substantially. “We also changed the way we recruited students in terms of how we communicated with them,” she said. “We sold Framingham [State]. So the amount of communication increased. The amount of digital advertising increased to try to reach them.” Godes said college recruitment is much more active now than in the past. “Back in the day … there were, from what I hear, years that we had so many students on campus, we had some in hotels,” she said. “We were so full. You didn't have to recruit like you do today. People just knew, Framingham State is here. Everybody knew it, and they came,” she added. One change Godes said she implemented was assigning each potential student an admissions counselor in order to give them a more immediate personal connection. Godes said communication also increased to better inform potential students of the school’s opportunities, involving “a combination of print materials that we send home, the website, which we improved, and the digital advertising, which expanded dramatically.” Godes stressed the importance of the expanded marketing to remind people about information they might not know about the college. She said, “People were saying to me in the beginning, ‘Well, everybody knows Framingham [State’s] here.’ I said, ‘Why does McDonald's advertise? Why does Nike advertise? Does anybody not know?’ “You need the reminder,” she said. “And for our people, we were making assumptions about what they know, which they may or may not.” She said visiting the campus made a big difference in people’s impressions of the school. “You’ve got to get them here so that they can experience it. And so we work really hard to get people to campus,” she said. Dan Magazu, executive director of the Office of Marketing & Communications, said Framingham State’s marketing efforts have become much more focused on authenticity. “Prospective students are looking for more authentic information from universities,” he said. “They're looking for other student voices.” Magazu said Framingham State recently hired a firm called CampusReel, which hires students to create videos about different topics on campus. CampusReel is an organization that works to promote higher education institutions with student-led video content. “You're trying to provide real stories, and show the real impact the University has had on students in terms of providing them opportunities to get an education, get a good job, and have a good life,” he said. “We're trying to make our campaigns more around storytelling than just buzzwords or slogans,” Magazu said. “We actually recently put together some campaigns around three different students at the University.” According to Magazu, each campaign consisted of a video with an accompanying story, depicting the student’s personal experience at Framingham State. “Ultimately, students can tell other students the best reasons why Framingham State might be a good opportunity for them,” he said. Magazu said marketing has also become much more personalized. “Five, ten years ago, it might be more about just getting Framingham State's name out in general and hoping that students see it and are interested. Now, we can really dive in in a granular way.” Magazu said the goal of advertising was to get students to fill out a Request for Information (RFI) form for FSU, at which point they become a prospective student. “If they tell us they have a certain major, we'll send them a letter from the chair of that department. If they tell us they're interested in commuting, we might tee up a student story from a commuter student - vice versa with resident students,” he said. Despite challenges with enrollment, Magazu said he felt confident in the Office of Marketing & Communication’s ability to bring students to the school. “Everyone's working really hard to make sure that we continue to enroll a healthy number of students in the face of some dramatic challenges - not just the enrollment cliff, but also free community college,” Magazu said. He added certain schools with traditionally high numbers of international students were seeing a reduction in that student population. “To replace those students, they're going to be more competitive with the students who are coming to Framingham State,” he said. “We have to make sure we're doing an excellent job communicating the value of Framingham State.” Godes said by looking at data trends among students who enroll in other colleges, and examining academic programs and recruitment strategies at those universities, Framingham State will be able to make necessary changes to attract more students. “There's not more people. But [other schools are] doing better. They are taking our people,” Godes said. According to Godes, the top five institutions applicants attended instead of FSU were UMass Boston, Bridgewater State, UMass Lowell, UMass Dartmouth, and Worcester State, in that order. “Of the 5,000 plus applications that we get, that represents over 1,300 students,” she said. Godes said another strategy is working with departments that have equivalent programs at competing universities. “We have that major, but they're going somewhere else,” she said. “Now I can work with those departments [at FSU]. How can we be promoting your program better?” Provost Kristen Porter-Utley said the University can draw in students by changing concentrations to majors. “Last year, there were a series of proposals that came through our governing process to offer to elevate some concentrations in biology to actual majors,” she said. “And so, what we have seen as a result of that is an increase in interest of new students in biology. “Rather than hiding something as a concentration, really having it as a major gets it out there to students that we're actually doing this kind of work,” she said. According to Porter-Utley, a group of faculty and staff members called the Academic Program Portfolio Team also evaluates the University’s programs. She said the role of the team was to assess, “‘What does our academic program portfolio look like?’ ‘What do we know are interests?’ ‘What are some things that we might think about doing to change that portfolio, to be of interest to students?’” She said another aspect of enrollment she was concerned about was the transfer process. “We don't necessarily make our processes that easy,” Porter-Utley said. “How quickly we're able to get back to transfer students about what will transfer and won’t transfer … is something that we're working on.” Godes said enrollment initiatives have helped slow the decline. “Even though we’re still down … we’re recovering,” she said. Overall, Godes said, a major factor to balance with expanded enrollment initiatives is money. Godes said increasing financial aid is a sure way to raise enrollment, citing Bridgewater State’s “BSU Commitment,” which pledged to cover all tuition and fees for families making $125,000 or less. “It was a massive amount of money. However, they saw about a 14% increase in their enrollment this year,” she said. “Do we decide to be bold? That costs money,” she said. “It's only so high you're going to go without pulling money away from everybody's experience at the University. So you need to have enough that students get a great experience as well as [an affordable experience]. Freshman Ryan Dias said his connections were what drew him to FSU. “At the end of my soccer season in high school, I was contacting coaches, and this was one of the schools I was talking to,” he said. “I had a friend here that was on the team, and he took me on a tour of the school.” Junior transfer Mikayla Karos said she appreciates Framingham State’s higher quality of education. “My classes are a lot harder, but [I’m] definitely getting a better education here than at [Bridgewater State University].” Junior Sebastian Garcia-Azurdia said he went to Framingham State for the lower cost. “It’s just cheaper than the other schools I got into - I didn’t really get any merit scholarships at the other schools … so I just decided, ‘I’m going to commute here, and I’ll just pay less.’” Sophomore Peter Huynh said he went to Framingham State with the plan of learning English, then transferring. “When I finish the English [program], I’m going to transfer to another school to study at,” he said. Sophomore Kayla Harley said college can be a financial burden that can hinder attendance. “I’m lucky enough my parents [said], ‘You can live with us as long as you need to to get a degree in a good field,’ but a lot of people don’t have that,” she said. She said she thinks FSU could also do more to advertise the benefits of higher education. “I think there’s been, especially recently, a lot of discouragement from college saying that it might be a waste of time or money because of how difficult the job markets are right now,” she said. “So possibly [communicating] potential internships the school provides or programs [to] get kids into proper jobs post-graduation.” Freshman Seb Gomes said he went to Framingham State out of convenience. “[It’s my] hometown. [It’s] close to where my grandma lives and close to where I live, so I just commute.” Junior Alli Dolat said certain career outcomes can make college seem less beneficial. “I joke that I’m screwing myself over by becoming an Education major … because you hear from so many people that you don’t get paid enough,” she said. “But it’s also my passion.” Junior Katherine Evers said she thinks finances are a big factor preventing more people from enrolling in college. “Things are just getting more expensive in every aspect of life, and so school feels like something that people can’t make room in their budget for,” she said.