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Guilford appears on 100 Best Value Colleges' list
By Crosby Blair and Zack Pinsky
Staff Writers
Guilford was recently placed in the top 100 on the Princ
eton Review's Best Value Colleges. This annual review se
lects 50 private colleges and 50 public universities from a
pool of 650.
In choosing those on the list, Princeton Review used 30
different criteria in three different categories. The analysis
was conducted based on information compiled from insti
tutional data reports and anonymous student surveys from
each college.
The categories are academics, cost and financial aid.
Guilford was noted for its attention to Quaker values, small
and rigorous academic classes, and excellent financial aid
packages.
Guilford ranked number 19 for private colleges, placing
it just behind Davidson and Duke, who were 13 and 16 re
spectively.
Since the college's establishment in 1888, Guilford has
-put Quaker values at the forefront of its curriculum. As the
Review notes, Guilford's "Quaker principles of responsibil
ity, equality, respect and social justice engagement" offer a
"unique aspect of the college's atmosphere and character."
A large part of Guilford's marketing plan focuses on ad
vertising these Quaker aspects.
""As part of the current strategic plan, adopted in 2005,
Guilford affirmed its core values as community, diversity,
equality, excellence, integrity, justice and stewardship,"
said Ty Buckner, director of communications and market
ing.
In fact, the mission statement on the school's Web site
states, "Guilford College inspires each student to achieve
excellence through an engaging community, rooted in
Quaker values, which nurtures creativity and social re
sponsibility."
Senior Nathaniel Larson Coppock, a clerk of the Quaker
Leadership Scholars Program (QLSP), disagrees.
"Quakerism is affecting the campus less and less," said
Coppock. "From what I can tell, teachers and classes that
make Guilford are leaving."
Similar thoughts are shared by Frank Massey, QLSP's
gift discernment coordinator.
Massey began his employment at Guilford in fall 2006
and commented that, "The Web site hasn't changed since
I've been here, neither has the marketing plan — but cam
pus ministry has never played a huge role in determining
the market strategy."
Buckner acknowledges this stagnation and comments
that Guilford is "on the cusp" of a new Web site.
"In terms of the Web, we are making changes on a con
tinuing basis that may not be as visible to most viewers,"
said Buckner. "These include the adding and elimination of
pages on the site, updating of information on various pages
and some navigation improvements. The redesign that has
been proposed would be a major project that would affect
all areas of the site including the home page."
"Redesigning takes a year to 18 months," he added, "but
visible changes should be seen within this calendar year."
Small class size, the second factor Guilford was noted
for, has always been an important tenet of Quaker educa
tion. The school's student to faculty ratio is consistently 16
to one.
Vice President of Enrollment Services Randy Doss said.
"We have hired more full-time faculty to ensure small class
sizes," even though hiring more faculty members is costly.
"Small class sizes were a definite factor for me," said
first-year Amir Moore, "It allows a better, more personal
connection with your professor, who actually knows your
name."
"Enrollment rates at Guilford have increased each year
during the past decade except for one," notes Doss.
This increase is illustrated by last year's spring semes
ter's record-breaking traditional student count of 1,331.
Such a continued increase may seem surprising due to cur
rent economic conditions. This, as Dean of Students Aaron
Fetrow explains, is one of the main reasons he believes
Guilford made it onto the list.
"It's not so much that Guilford's changed, but the eco
nomic climate has," said Fetrow.
With job rates at an all-time low, people are being more
careful with how they spend their money.
As the Review mentions, Guilford students demonstrat
ing a need for financial aid can receive support through a
combination of grants, scholarships and work-study posi
tions. In particular, Guilford is one of only 25 schools na
tionwide that participate in the Bonner Scholars program,
which offers reimbursement for service to the greater
Greensboro community.
The financial aid discount rate for this year is 43 percent,
which means that, on average, for every dollar that a stu
dent pays, the school gives back 43 cents in institutional
ized aid.
Doss said that while this sort of recognition certainly
never hurts, it is not about statistics and reports.
"Happy students are the best marketing tool," said Doss.
RATES
Retention rates show promise for future years
Continued from page I
to 406 (first-year students in 2008) and our
retention went up to 80 percent."
Fetrow said that now we have 448 first-
years but since the retention numbers are
not official yet, we will have to wait to see if
the number remains as high. "We retained a
small class better," said Fetrow. "And that's
always been my argument. That the last 30
or 40 (students) you accept might be the
ones who don't stay. That seems like logic,
to me — late accepts, those on the waiting
list."
Why do retention rates tnatter?
Both retention and persistence rates are
important measurements at tuition-driven
institutions such as Guilford where, ac
cording to Randy Doss, vice president of
enrollment services, currently 88 percent of
the school's income is tuition-based. When
students withdraw from the College, that
income is lost.
Both measurements clearly have finan
cial implications in terms of tuition, but to
those outside of the college, retention rates
are more significant. The federal govern
ment requires that retention be calculated
and use those rates to determine financial
aid.
Another reason for the importance of re
tention rates, according to Fetrow, is that
a big part of how the U.S. news magazine
ranks colleges is based on retention.
"They look at retention rates of a school
to see how good of a school you are," said
Fetrow.
However, because persistence measure
ments encompass the whole of the student
body, it is the more holistic approach for
the college to measure the student body
from year to year.
"Without persistence you can't have re
tention," said Fetrow. "(Administrators)
budget for a 91 percent persistence total.
This number was reiterated by the Strategic
Long Range Plan. If persistence falls short
of that goal, budgeting becomes more dif
ficult."
"If they (students) don't come back in the
spring, they're probably not coming back
in the fall," said Fetrow. "We watch persis
tence as an indicator. And then going for
ward, it's an indicator of graduation rates."
^-Members of the student body who con-
I Tibute to persistence but not to retention
also do not contribute to the school's grad
uation rates. Therefore, transfer students
^who graduate don't contribute to gradua
tion rates.
In high school, your class is referred to by
the year you are scheduled to graduate. In
college it is referred to by the year you were
an incoming freshman.
"The graduation rate for a cohort is mea
sured at the four-year mark, the five-year
mark, and the six year mark. The six-year
mark has become more the standard na
tionally," said Fetrow. Members of a given
cohort who graduate in five years can still
raise the graduation rates for their class.
Is the increase in retention sustainable?
According to Fetrow, we are unsure
whether this increase of about 10 percent
is sustainable because it has only occurred
once; however, the college managed to re
tain 92 percent of the '09 first-year cohort
from fall '09 to spring '10, which suggests
that the high retention rates will persist.
"Of course, your fall to spring retention
rate will be higher than your fall to fall re
tention rate," said Thomas Coaxum, former
director of institutional research and assess
ment.
Numerous reasons explain why a student
might leave Guilford, and since the recent
retention rate increase is new and possibly
fragile, a continued focus on the reasons be
hind retention loss is relevant.
"Do you know the number one reason
that students give for not returning?" said
Kent Grumbles, the new director of institu
tional research and assessment. "It's finan
cial, all over the country. But sometimes,
students will say it's financial, when some
times it's something else.
According to Grumbles, personal rea
sons are the second most commonly given
for not returning, "But, in almost all cases,
students continue on. A very high percent
age goes to another school, they don't drop
out," said Grumbles.
This is exemplified by the case of junior
Kirstin Williams, who transferred to Geor
gia State after completing her first year at
Guilford. She said that at Georgia State she
"pays for one semester what students at
Guilford probably pay for one credit hour."
Finances weren't the only reason that
Williams gave for transferring. She was
unsure of what she wanted to do after she
graduated and couldn't foresee graduate
school in a future dictated by debt.
"The option of grad school is a possibili
ty now, because, instead of finishing under
graduate $20,000 in debt, I might be able to
afford to continue school," said Williams.
Aside from the financial, "academic dis
missal is the number one reason we loose
students," said Tammy Alt, associate dean
for campus life.
"A school with the quality of students
that Guilford has normally would retain
more than they do," said Grumbles.
By quality of the students. Grumbles
says he means that Guilford is categorized
as a selective school.
Guilford's categorization as a selective
school means it can exclusively accept
students with better academic credentials
(higher high school GPA's and test scores)
than a larger state school might.
According to Grumbles, Guilford does
not require incoming students to sub
mit their ACT or SAT scores, but many
do. Those scores are relatively high, with
the average being above 1100. Typically
the trend is that the higher the average
test score is, the higher the retention rates
would be.
There are more students placed on aca
demic probation and academically dis
missed at Guilford than at most schools
with students of similar academic creden
tials, such as competitor schools like Al
bright College, Oglethorpe University and
Stonehill College.
Figures provided by the office of the aca
demic dean show that 12 percent of the tra
ditional freshman class and five percent of
the total student body were on probation as
of Spring 2009. That is up from the seven
percent who went on probation a year ear
lier and slightly worse than the numbers
for the previous six years, which averaged
about 10 percent. That means in a class
room of 20 students, two will on average be
on academic probation.
The discrepancy between higher rates
of persistence and lower rates of retention
exists because persistence includes trans
fers, Doss said. He says that means stu
dents have been to another college before
and tend to be older and more mature aca
demically and socially."
For the most part, additional measures
in the past two years to raise these rates of
persistence and retention, such as the men
tor program, the hall directors, and hiring
an academic advisor liaison are specifically
oriented towards the younger members of
the school's traditional student body.