A Northwestern College representative speaks with visitors to the Golden Circle College and Career Fair on Sept. 22, 2024. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Some of Iowa’s private universities are seeing high enrollment numbers ahead of the demographic cliff that will shrink prospective student populations across the country.
Northwestern College in Orange City saw record enrollment for the sixth straight year this fall. Tamara Fynaardt, vice president for enrollment and marketing, said the surge been largely driven by growth in graduate and professional students. While the number of graduate and professional students only increased by two this year, the college saw a 16% bump in incoming freshmen and transfer students.
Fynaardt said she believes the Northwest College brand has gotten stronger through new programs like an engineering major that launched this fall with 15 students enrolled. University staff have also worked hard to help prospective students and their families understand how financial aid works and show them the difference between the sticker price and what they’ll actually pay.
From those efforts working with high school juniors and seniors, Fynaardt said the university saw increased applications for the 2024-2025 school year and the largest freshman class since 2010. The university has also tried to demonstrate that the benefits of a Northwestern education go beyond the degree, which is something students want.
“Colleges and universities nationwide are going to be fighting over a smaller pool of students, so that’s why we’ve put a lot of work and investment into our brand and helping people just raise awareness for who we are, what we have to offer, just making sure we’re part of the conversation for students in Iowa, students in our region,” Fynaardt said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Dordt University in Sioux Center also experienced record enrollment this fall, its fifth consecutive year for total enrollment and second for freshmen, Director Greg Van Dyke said. A total of 1,943 students are attending Dordt this fall, the most in the university’s history.
Van Dyke said the university takes an individualized approach to recruitment and working through the financial aid process with families, which helps them feel more comfortable committing to Dordt. Students are also choosing Dordt because of its Christian mission, according to research on admitted students, as well as the college’s programs.
The college’s freshman-to-sophomore retention rate is also one of the best in its history, sitting at almost 85%.
“That shows me that students are finding value and really enjoying their experience at Dordt, and I think that they are sharing that with their local communities, and that continues to drive interest as well,” Van Dyke said. “And we hear more and more students coming for visits that say they Googled Christian college and a specific major like agriculture or engineering, and Dordt pops up and then they check out the website, and they come here, and it matches with what they found on the website, and they’re excited about that.”
Other private colleges in Iowa that saw record-breaking enrollment include Buena Vista University, which reported in a news release that it welcomed its largest undergraduate class in nine years, and Simpson University, which enrolled its largest incoming class since 2012 this year.
With colleges and universities across the country bracing for the enrollment cliff, Van Dyke said Dordt University is closely monitoring the markets where their students come from most often. About 65% of enrolled students are not from Iowa, he said, and student numbers in high school classes that university leaders been tracking in California, Minnesota, South Dakota and other areas seem to be growing rather than shrinking.
“That kind of makes us wrestle with it a little bit, because we do know there’s a demographic cliff coming, but at the same time, our markets and metrics aren’t looking quite the same on the national level,” Van Dyke said.
While Dordt isn’t doing anything specific to prepare for potential dips in prospective students, Van Dyke said the institution is continuing to monitor both its own campus and its markets, and will quickly respond if needed.
After seeing numbers go up and up over the past few years, Fynaardt said the drop in high school seniors is expected to hit in the fall of 2026. It’s on every higher education enrollment professional’s mind, and she said Northwestern is lucky to be heading into it with such robust enrollment.
In addition to brand work and connecting closely with students and their families, Fynaardt said Northwestern is also looking to break into more adult student markets with its graduate and professional studies division. Diversifying the kinds of students being welcomed to campus is one way to keep enrollment up through the cliff, she said.
“We all want to not just survive but flourish past the demographic cliff,” Fynaardt said. “What that looks like is going to involve a variety of tactics, including going where the market is, being nimble — something higher education is not really known for, but I think we’re all getting a little better at it.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.