Strategic Goal II: Grow Enrollments

GROW ENROLLMENTS: Ensure a thriving, richly diverse, and enduring community through strategic enrollment growth.

Rationale

The desire to grow the student enrollments and more fully utilize the campus resources is a shared goal between the School and College, although they will approach this target in different ways. We will actively seek to attract students from throughout the world who are interested in being part of a learning community grounded in Christian Science values.

Any new outreach and admission processes will be governed by the concepts included in the Trustee’s statement of August 2019, titled “Enlarging the Tent, Strengthening the Stakes.” To better fulfill the Principia mission in today’s world, the enhanced student recruitment efforts will be designed to maximize the enrollments of Christian Science students while also exploring new markets for students open to a deeper engagement with Christian Science.

Beginning school year 2021–2022, the institution will establish total new student recruiting and enrolling target goals each year of 115 to 135 in PreK to grade 12 at the School and 125 to 145 at the College, while maintaining strong student retention rates at both campuses. Enrollment goals will be reevaluated each year to better ensure progress toward the strategic plan’s broader enrollment profile goals and budget targets. We will treat the target goals to the extent they include new-market students as a pilot for the initial phase, during which time no Policy changes are contemplated.

The annual process and outcomes reviews will allow campus leadership and the Trustees to closely evaluate the impact of the new recruiting and enrollment practices on the culture and character of the Principia experience. These regular assessments will guide practice adjustments and provide for a continual improvement cycle for the new marketing and student support services going forward.

Based on the current educational structure, the optimal enrollments for programmatic and financial sustainability are between 500 and 600 students at the School and between 525 and 545 residential students at the College. In addition, the College may explore new online and post-baccalaureate programs to serve the broader Christian Science community.

School Initiatives

  1. St. Louis Metro Market: Update outreach, recruitment, and enrollment plans to best maximize the enrollment of Christian Science students living in the St. Louis region.
  2. National: Create referral, recruitment, and enrollment plans to best maximize the enrollment of Christian Science students from throughout the country. A special emphasis will be made to build deeper and more robust prospective student databases to enable early and regular communication between families and Principia.
  3. Diversity: Develop an enrollment diversity plan that helps define and attract a new student population that can best fulfill the goals of the 2019 admission pilot program and the strategic planning committee’s diversity goals.

College Initiatives

  1. Traditional Christian Science Undergraduates: Update enrollment plans to better maximize the enrollment of Christian Science students and utilize campus resources.
  2. Diverse Undergraduates: Develop an enrollment diversity plan that defines the desired student profile and creates new outreach, recruitment, and retention programs for each new student market.
  3. Adults in the Christian Science Community: Explore the need for and feasibility of offering post-baccalaureate programs that meet the identified learning and professional development goals of the broader Christian Science community. Initial offers will build on existing lifelong learning programs, utilize online delivery resources, and be aligned with current faculty competencies.