MELISSA WU, Special to The Denisonian—
Since March 2020, the COVID-19 has affected many universities’ admissions officers, especially those responsible for international students. But fortunately for Denison, the pattern of steady increases in international student enrollment in 2020 and 2021 continues.
Bryce Benton, director of international student admissions at Denison University, gave the overall information for the international students’ enrollment from 2019 to 2021. There were 2,447 applications for international students in 2019, with 97 enrollments; 2,770 applications in 2020, with 112 enrollments; 3255 applications in 2021, with 131 enrollments. Initially, there were more in 2020, but many dropped out or delayed until the fall of ’21 because of COVID-19. In 2021, some students will start their studies in spring ’22.
From the comprehensive data, the proportion of application delivery increased by 31%, and the proportion of enrollment increased by 35% from 2019 to 2021, which is very impressive. The number of international students from India, South Korea and Vietnam is growing. At the same time, there are more international students coming from places like Pakistan that used to be relatively small. However, it is interesting to note that the number of Chinese international students is gradually decreasing.
In addition to the change in the proportion of Chinese international students, the recruitment of the office of international students also has changed their work style from offline to online. Before COVID-19, the administration officers usually traveled for three months to visit schools, make speeches and interview students. These very many on-site visits included recruitment, brand promotion, establishing contact with universities. From March 2020, their work has been forced to switch to online, using Zoom to contact students in various countries.
The more students a school can enroll, the better.
It may not sound terribly different, since almost everything has been done online at the beginning of the pandemic. But this model takes time for admissions officers to get used to. Admissions directly affect the overall evaluation of a university. The more students a school can enroll, the better, and therefore the more prestige it can gain. If the number of applicants increases, the institutions become more selective in their admissions. As a result, international student enrollment rates became even more important during the pandemic.
Because of the pandemic, at a time when budgets at many schools are in question, staff salaries in various departments will be cut, and there may be fewer admissions staff, which can also lead to a decline in the overall enrollment rate of universities. A survey of more than 700 schools suggests that international student enrollments for the 2020 to 2021 has declined by 43%, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A drop in overall enrollment will affect the choices of most international students because international students care more about a comprehensive comparison of all aspects of a college than domestic students. The enrollment rate of international students is an important indicator of a university’s potential and why we should care about it.
“Every College is in the Same Boat.”
Under the pressure that during the epidemic they can only make online meetings, the admissions officers of Denison University tried their best to establish contact with international students in a virtual environment. They tried to replicate scenes that could have been communicated face-to-face. Benton said that they made a lot of presentations to tell students what kind of school Denison University is, including academic, geographical location, teaching environment, dormitory environment and so on.
Online meetings must be limited, but Benton is trying to make this limited work full of scalability and flexibility. “We’ve been virtual for a long time, and now I think we’re better than when we first started.”
Virtual space actually has advantages. His job requires frequent business trips to visit high schools and promote Denison University, which might cost three or four weeks to travel. In the past, he could only go to places with limited audiences and limited contacts, but now, because of Zoom, he can go “anywhere he wants to go.” Meeting online just saves him a lot of time. He can work with students from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe on the same day.
The journey will also consume a large part of his energy. The basic situation is that he goes to different high schools to give speeches, hoping that there will always be a student interested in the school. “You resonate with people. But you are just throwing things against the wall, wait and see what sticks. Hoping that something works,” he laughed.
Still, he and his colleagues have had to adapt to a new mode of work since the outbreak began last March. It was also very stressful at the beginning, because they had to worry not only about how best to use the online platform, but also whether the pandemic was having a big impact on international student recruitment. Under the severe challenge of the epidemic, the staff of the admissions office need to find new ways to publicize the school and let students choose Dennison university instead of other universities.
But Benton is optimistic, “I try to look at the problem from this perspective, embrace it and ride the wind and waves.”
His optimism and confidence are not blind. Admissions officials are thinking about how they can attract more international students during the pandemic, since Denison is a liberal arts college with a far better reputation than public schools. “Brand recognition is the most important thing,” he compared Denison with Ohio State University. When international students do research on schools thousands of miles away, they don’t have many resources to use. At this time, the reputation and brand recognition are easy to affect students’ choices.
But in the past 10 years, Denison University has built so many positive momentum, which is the reason for the increased interest of international students. Denison has a good reputation and a high comprehensive ranking. It has established many programs, which really increased international enrollment. Simple things, such as making the website look good, adding expertise and leading projects.
Perhaps the most appealing thing for international students to come to Denison is because of the financial aid. The International Admissions Office is expected to meet every students’ demonstrated means. After the students decide to come to Denison, the staff will complete the four-year financial aid for each international student based on their requirements to ensure the needs, which may not be possible for other schools.
Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, the admissions office is always striving for more opportunities for international students, whether it is scholarships or financial aid. “Fortunately, every college is in the same boat. It’s not like we have disadvantage by having to do it all virtually. We made most of it, and we’ve been making most of it. Fortunately, we haven’t seen huge changes in our application numbers, overall,” Benton said.
“The learning atmosphere is great—small class education.”
In fact, the reasons international students chose Denison University before and after the epidemic have not changed much. However, compared with before the epidemic, international students will be more cautious in choosing U.S. universities, because they hope they can study in a safe and friendly environment. Ciel Hu, 21, who is a senior from China and a communication and east Asian studies double major, thinks Denison’s environment is very friendly for international students, especially under the epidemic—this time of increased discrimination against Asians. Whether the school treats Asian international students well will also become an important factor in their selection.
Most international students chose Denison University for many reasons, such as because of its small and excellent teaching quality. Although public universities are more famous, international students who come to Denison hope that they can really have a very good academic environment. Compared with public universities, Denison allows students to carry out small class education and ensure the communication between professors and students, which are important reasons to attract international students.
Wenyu Shan, 18, who is a freshman economics major from China, said, “The main reason for choosing Denison is that I can find professors any time, and they are friendly. The learning atmosphere is great—small-class education.”
There are also some novel reasons. Pol Le, 18, a freshman from Vietnam and possible creative writing major in the future, said that Denison’s web page looked very professional, which drew her attention. She also said that she saw Denison’s campus tour on YouTube. Although it was only about two to three minutes, the video clearly presented the campus environment. All these provided her with good materials, which made her choose Denison.
How about Chinese international students?
As Benton said, the number of international students at Denison has increased. Interestingly, only the number of Chinese international students is decreasing. The information obtained from the administration office is that there were 450 applications and 65 students enrolled from China in 2019; there were 281 applications in 2021, and only 18 students are enrolled. The number of applicants is directly reduced by half, and finally the number of enrollments is only about a quarter of that of three years ago.
What’s interesting about the decline in the number of Chinese students is that Denison is not alone. In recent years, the number of Chinese students in U.S. universities has decreased. According to the statistics from Chinese Students’ Preferred Destinations for Studying Overseas, in 2015, 51% of people chose to come to the United States to continue their higher education, while in 2021, only 32% chose to go to the United States. Whether they are reluctant to come to the United States for higher education because of other political factors, such as tensions between China and the United States, is also open to debate.
Although there are only 18 Chinese freshmen this year, they are quite satisfied with the overall situation of Denison university so far. Kaisheng Nei, 18, a Chinese freshman who studies physics, said that the admissions officer from Denison University gave a speech in his high school, which made him feel that he could learn more about the school. “I learned from the speech that Denison is a relatively small college. After coming here, I think the advantage of me compared with other students in the larger university is that the learning atmosphere could be better because of the small school. For example, you can walk to the teaching building. And you may be more familiar with the professor.”
No matter what the enrollment system of other universities is, Denison is still trying to recruit as many Chinese students as they can. Many Chinese students cannot use Facebook or Instagram because the Chinese government banned it, meaning that their desire to understand the direction of American schools may be limited. It is for this reason that Benton hopes that he and his colleagues can set up an official Denison account in WeChat, which is the most popular social media used in China, for Chinese students, to provide correct information for more Chinese students who want to know about Denison. On Oct 22, they will connect high school students and students’ parents online through Zoom to share all aspects of Denison University. Ziyue Zhang, 20, who is a junior from China, will share her experience at Denison.
What is the goal for the rest of the year?
Most of the reasons international students choose Denison university are because it is a private college with a high-quality teaching environment. At the same time, it accepts and embraces all kinds of cultures and offers a wide variety of scholarships and financial aid.
As an admissions officer, Benton chose Denison University for a simple reason, because it is a school with potential ability. He has been working at Denison since 2016. Previously, he worked as an admissions officer at the University of California Santa Cruz.
“I am from Columbus. But it’s more likely to be Denison which made me move back,” Benton believed that Denison is a place with good leadership and good professional growth opportunities. Another reason is that since he has worked in the larger public university, close relationships between people can be realized in Denison. He can communicate more, really get in touch with students and help students solve their doubts. When it comes to what other goals need to be achieved this year, Benton and his colleagues still put numbers driven first. “Numbers of applications we received. The yield student we admitted versus how many accepted. And finally, the enrollment and tuition revenue.”