Freshman Enrollment Down 10% in 5 Years
- Thread starter jerseyshorejohnny
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jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
It's off campus housing.
beast of the east
Active member
Are you talking about the dorm that was built smack in the middle of residential housing near Hillside Avenue? Personally thought that was horrible of St. john's, which destroyed the home values of neighbors on that street without compensation to them.
beast of the east
Active member
I'm not sure how enrollment is down, but SATs are up, unless 1) SJU is being more selective, which is doubtful, or 2) Pharmacy and Allied Health Profession applications, which always soar in a down economy, are buoying the overall SATs of incoming freshmen. I'd vote for the latter, unless someone has a better explanation.
beast of the east
Active member
It's been pointed out that these numbers may not be the numbers for the incoming class, but for accepted freshmen. I do know that St. John's directly contacts top hs seniors presumably with information about their test scores, waives the application fee, allows common app, and waives the essay requirement while promising immediate acceptance notification and plenty of scholarship money available. So while it may be a legitimate effort to attract top hs grads, it also creates a system to bolster the claims of the highest scores ever by SJU applicants. With virtually no effort and no cost, a top student with almost no intention of coming to St. John's can boost the accepted SAT scores number simply by applying.
Unfortunately you are correct.
The SAT numbers I posted are ranges of students accepted at StJohns so the averages are skewed by the availability of free applications and applicants applying to multiple pharmacy schools with #62 StJohns merely as their backup.
The SAT numbers I posted are ranges of students accepted at StJohns so the averages are skewed by the availability of free applications and applicants applying to multiple pharmacy schools with #62 StJohns merely as their backup.
beast of the east
Active member
I was inquiring if it was the same property I described. When I saw the property I am referring to, one block north of Hillside, it was a big hole in the ground among an entire street of residential homes. A college dorm stuck in the middle of that block will have hundreds of college students, coming and going at all hours of the night. Property values certainly have been damaged by that, but our now crestfallen Catholic priest saw nothing wrong in that. Thinking like a CEO, no wait, a POS CEO, overrode thinking like a caring religious man.
Early in my career, I worked in NJ for a very large pharmaceutical corporation. Their headquarters was about 90 acres bordering route 3, but also bordered on the other three side, by a residential neighborhood. The company did it's very best to make sure that there was minimal disruption to the community, and that the entrances fronting the community were always meticulously gardened by an onsite greenhouse where flowers were in bloom from early spring to late fall. When St. John's built that dorm, it basically said they couldn't give a care about the neighbors on that street.
beast of the east
Active member
As you know, that is Jamaica Estates, not some slum. If I lived there and St. John's pulled that lowlife crap, there'd be hell to pay, As Al Pacino said in Scent of a Woman, " If I were the man I was five years ago I'd take a flame-thrower to this place."
beast of the east
Active member
Yes I know for a fact they were vehemently against it in an organized way. There was placards on almost every front lawn protesting the dorm. To me, the university was cheap - purchasing homes on a residential street had to cost a lot less than buying commercial property on Hillside Avenue, or razing an apartment building.
jerseyshorejohnny
Well-known member
Watching the St. Patrick's Day Parade and have seen commercials for Quinnipiac, Manhattan, Marist, Fordham and Iona. None for St. John's.