By: Anna Aguillard, Senior Writer
In late February, the Old Gold and Black reported admissions data showing that Wofford’s first-year SAT scores have been declining in recent years, and now fall lower than Clemson, USC and Furman. Additionally, numbers show lower Valedictorians, Salutatorians and students in the top 10 percent of their classes. In response, Brand Stille, vice president of enrollment at Wofford College, offered an explanation for the decline.
“The primary reason that we have seen some decline is that we engaged a financial aid consultant to help us manage our financial aid,” Stille says. “Their initial review said that we were spending too many dollars at the top of our applicant pool.”
After the consultation, admissions changed the way they allocate financial aid – instead of spending more on the very top of the applicant pool, a portion of the money from the top is reallocated to the middle.
“Let’s say you were one of our top applicants three or four years ago,” says Stille. “Maybe our target scholarship was 75 percent of all cost. The consultant said that maybe we ought to back off of that 75 percent, maybe offer that student 70 percent. The remaining 5 percent, we take and use it in the middle of the pool. A student getting a 50 percent scholarship gets 55 percent,” says Stille.
Stille reiterated that more money is still going to the top students with the top test scores – they just aren’t getting quite as much as they were a few years ago. He also said that Wofford suspected the consultant’s suggested change might have an impact on the number of top applicants choosing to come to Wofford.
“If we are going to be offering less aid in any part of the pool, we would expect fewer students in that area to enter.”
Likewise, because more aid is offered to middle applicants, more are entering – which partly explains the decline in scores.
“I think that it’s had an impact on a number of different areas, test scores being one. Valedictorians and Salutatorians being another. Palmetto fellows included as well,” says Stille.
According to Stille, this new allocation model helps obtain “predictive results,” which are in the College’s best interest. Each year, a certain amount of money is budgeted for financial aid. Because financial aid is the college’s largest expense, it’s important to have a stable idea of how much money will be spent in aid. Allocating more money to middle applicants helps to obtain more predictive results and helps make budgeting easier – in turn, Wofford as a whole has more stable financial footing.
“When we spend more aid than we had budgeted, there are fewer dollars for programming, for student experience, for faculty salaries and for medical insurance,” says Stille.
Although the first few years of implementing the consulting firm’s strategy resulted in swings in freshman enrollment, Stille said that this seems to be balancing out and having a positive result on Wofford’s financial stability.
“This past year, we hit our numbers about as closely as we possibly can,” says Stille. “The aid we spent was very close to what we projected in terms of scholarships and aid.”
So, is achieving financial stability worth the risk of lowering test scores?
According to Stille, although Wofford’s goals are to improve the scores and other academic measures, the most telling metric of academic success is not SAT scores, but a recalculated high school GPA.
“The recalculated GPA is the best predictor of a freshman’s GPA at Wofford. Over the last 10 years, while we have seen some decline in test scores, we have seen that recalculated GPA improve. Not every year, but I think there is a pretty good trend towards improvement,” says Stille.
The increased focus on recalculated GPA, which adds extra weight to AP and IB courses, has led Admissions to consider the possibility of becoming a “test-optional” college, like Furman, Sewannee and about 850 other colleges and universities, according to Fair Test, a national organization that advocates for the de-emphasis of the use of standardized tests.
Stille also points to other factors to which the College has been paying more attention when allocating financial aid.
“Diversity goals are a part of our strategic enrollment plan, as well. We are looking primarily at increasing diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, geographic location and economically,” he says.
This year, Wofford was ranked by the New York Times on a list of the most socioeconomically diverse college campuses.
Additionally, Stille pointed to a sign of Wofford’s success and prestige: the record number of applications received for the past two years. Increased applications lead to more selectivity, and more selectivity gives Wofford the chance to choose applicants with higher levels of academic and extracurricular success.
Stille said that there is “no denying” that scores have declined some, but he cautions students from “sounding a warning” at reports of lower SAT scores. There are many other factors that influence a college’s ranking and prestige.
“Personally, I think Wofford, from a lot of standpoints, is as strong today as it ever has been. I say that because of the number of students who are applying… fewer students at the very top of the applicant pool are enrolling, but this has produced more stable financial aid expenditures, more stable revenue for the college, and additional revenue for other needs that the college has,” he says.
