Smaller first-year class matriculation stresses budget

KATHERINE ROHLOFF ’19

STAFF WRITER

It is no secret that Trinity’s tuition is steep. In CNN Money’s annual list, “Ten Most Expensive Colleges”, Trinity is ranked seventh. With a school whose tuition is 85% higher than the $25,229 national average of college tuition according to calccollege.com, Trinity’s annual budget would seem to be a correspondingly substantial amount. However, the enrollment size of the Class of 2019 put the annual budget into a new perspective.

Between the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years, Trinity received a slight increase of approximately 1% in applications for admission, going from 7,507 to 7,570. This small increase did not have an impact on the acceptance rate for admission which remained the same, 33%, as last year. However, Admissions projected to have an entering class of 605, but instead, only 563 accepted their offer for admission. Mr. Angel Perez who was newly appointed as Head of Admissions at the beginning of the school year said, “This [605] was a higher target than in previous years.  One of the conversationsa we are having at the Cabinet level right now is whether or not that was an appropriate target based on Trinity’s enrollment trends.  In my initial analysis of Trinity’s enrollment data, I believe the College set the target too high last year.  We are still discussing what the right target should be in the future.”

Vice President for Finance and Operations and Treasurer, Mr. Paul Mutone, said that “The total budget for this year is $135,040,000.” Although the decrease in the number of students for the class of 2019 is substantial, the impacts will be minimal. “Division leaders are trying to adjust our budgets to address the deficit without having a major impact on the mission critical work of the College.”

However, yearly endowments which are a pool of assets such as stocks and bonds, that “provide a significant and reliable stream of revenue to permanently finance the College’s key priorities,” according to the Trinity College website. In 2012, the endowment was $42.5 million and has been rising exponentially. In 2014, it was $542,771,036. However, its endowments still lags behind other NESCAC and New England Colleges. For example, Smith College has a $1.85 billion endowment and Amherst College has a $1.25 billion one – Trinity is barely trailing behind Wesleyan University which has a $793.3 million endowment.

This admissions season, Trinity has omitted standardized test scoxqres and is instead opting for a larger emphasis placed on GPA and a Trinity specific essay question. This will lead to an even larger increase in applications for the incoming class of 2020. As of now, Trinity, especially the class of 2019, has reaped some benefits with its small class sizes, special attention from faculty, and opportunities for first choice in classes.