Vanessa Skildum, Staff Writer
Beloit College, a prestigious liberal arts college, resides nestled within the Beloit community. While there are plenty of high schools in the surrounding counties, very few local students attend.
“The question is why are we not getting students from our local counties? Historically it has been an issue,” says Mary Stelter, Associate Director of Admissions and Admissions Counselor for the stateline area.
Data obtained from Kate Virgo, Director of Enrollment Information Systems, showcase these low numbers. In the fall of 2021, 18 out of the whole 290 incoming freshman class came from Rock and Winnebago counties. In 2022, there were eight out of 228, and 2023 resulted in 19 out of 216. In total from the past five years, 94 students from the immediate area, including Dane, Rock, Green and Walworth counties, attended Beloit.
When asking current Beloit College students how they found out about the school, lack of advertising was a common theme. Ashton Adams’27, who attended FJ Turner High School, said, “The only reason I even heard about Beloit was from my boyfriend’s grandma as she works here. Turner never once advertised it.”
Jeremy Mueller’27, who attended Hononegah High School, said, “My school only ever recommended Beloit for their Porter Scholar program. They never suggested coming here. The only reason I looked into it on my own was because of swimming.”
The Beloit College Commitment is a new program implemented to increase the number of local students who attend the college. The program provides guaranteed pricing and admission for eligible high school seniors from eight surrounding counties.
The eight counties include four from Wisconsin: Dane, Green, Rock, and Walworth. The other four are counties in Illinois: Boone, Lake, McHenry, and Winnebago. The program aims to help make sure students receive transparency and tuition clarity throughout their admissions process and years at Beloit.
For Illinois residents, the maximum net tuition is $18,336. Room and Meal is $11,264 This totals a guaranteed max net cost of $29,600. For Wisconsin residents, the numbers vary from Illinois, with $13,973 for max net tuition and $11,264 for room and meals, totaling $25,237.
The sticker price of Beloit for the 2024-2025 school year, found on the Beloit College website, is $77,192. The average total net price was $34,282 for students in 2020.
“You will hear people say I can’t afford Beloit, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. Part of our push is you can, you can, you can. You can afford it. You can love it here. You can be a part of this community,” Stelter says.
The Beloit College Commitment is almost an extension of the Midwest Flagship Match program according to Martha Stoltz, Director of Admissions. According to the Beloit College website The Midwest Flagship Match is where, “qualified residents of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota pay no more in net tuition price at Beloit than what is charged by their home flagship public university.”
“In this first year, we are not necessarily expecting to see a huge increase from these eight counties,” Stoltz remarks. “I think overall if we see this as a kinda long-term strategy where we can maybe get an additional 20 students every year. They then start to build on each other.”
Along with Beloit’s Commitment, increasing communication and relationships with the schools and alumni has been a major priority for the college.
There was a Beloit College Commitment Initiation reception held on Tuesday, Dec. 5 from 4:30-6 p.m. The college invited all the counselors, principals, superintendents, and any alumni working within the schools of the eight counties to come to hear about the Beloit commitment program. Additionally, they gave tours and extra information as a step to continue to build relationships with the schools.
Karen Mayse, Executive Director of Advancement Operations, said, “There wasn’t as big of a bounty of RSVPs as we wanted so we are going to have a Zoom call in the first week in January to invite all of those same people to talk about Beloit Commitment. That way if people couldn’t do the first week in December or January we have about a 20-minute recording we can then send to those who were not able to make it.”
Another goal, Stelter shares, is increasing the presence Beloit College has in the community.
“Our new president Eric is really pushing to have a presence in our local area. For example Whitewater. You see Whitewater everywhere. Down at the Skycarp Stadium, Whitewater does trivia at the games. Whitewater is on the radio and the TV.”
Beloit now has an ad on the local Illinois and Wisconsin NPR stations. Since October, Stelter has visited 47 schools to talk about Beloit. Specifically for FJ Turner High School, she had 17 students in the event she hosted, compared to last year’s turnout of three.
The main challenge for getting local students to attend is convincing them they can still have the “college experience” while being close to home. “Students think about going to college, and they think about freedom they don’t want their parents around. We are trying to help students understand that they can have the real college experience, even if they grew up a mile from campus,” Stoltz said.
Stelter agrees with Stoltz saying, “When local students think of Beloit they think of Walmart, the movie theater, the Prairie Avenue Mcdonald’s. College isn’t that. Getting them here is the challenge. Once we get them here, we can show them that the environment here is nothing like the Beloit they grew up in.”
The Early College Credit (ECCP) and Porter Scholar programs were made to try to help gain student interest. The ECCP “allows students enrolled at Wisconsin public, charter, and private high schools to take up to 18 credits of college courses at a UW, private, or Tribal college located in Wisconsin (for high school and college credit or college credit only),” according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
The Porter Scholar program has been around since 1958. The college works with high schools in the Wisconsin counties of Rock, Walworth, and Green, as well as the Illinois counties of Winnebago and Boone. The program allows high school seniors to take a college class each semester for free. They only pay for books, fees, and transportation.
Additionally, Porter Scholars who decide to apply to Beloit have an expedited application process. If they earn a grade of a “B” or higher in a one-unit course they are eligible for the Porter Scholarship, which amounts to $20,000 over four years. They also receive a Beloit College ID, so they have access to student discounts, the library, and athletic facilities to give them the college experience.
Originally, the program was only open to applicants who were high school juniors in the top 10% of their class. A change they are making for the next academic year is it will be open to the top 15%.
Olga Ogurtsova, Adjunct Associate Professor of Modern Languages & Literatures (Russian) and advisor to transfer students and Porter Scholars, says this about the increase, “We want more students to come to Beloit and have a good experience. If we get more students here the hope is they will fall in love and genuinely consider it.”
Ogurtsova also adds, “I am an advisor to transfer students. Last winter five students from Beloit transferred to Beloit College from other schools. They didn’t even look at Beloit. The idea was to go as far away from their parents as possible. They realized big schools were not for them. When we were in the advisory period in November they were all so happy here.”
Katherin Arnold’25 is one of those five transfer students. She spent her first three semesters at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before transferring here for the spring 2023 semester. “I knew about Beloit and even applied. It was never a serious option for me though. I ended up going to UW-Madison and I just didn’t love it. Now that I am here, I am a lot happier. I wish I had given Beloit more thought when I made my decision.”
Beloit’s main competition for local students is the University of Wisconsin public school system. It has 13 universities within its system. University of Wisconsin WhiteWater is the closest UW university to Beloit College. Their average cost according to their website for a Wisconsin resident, including housing and meal plans, is $15,936.
Since Beloit Commitment puts a cap on the max tuition it brings the total cost of attendance closer to that of a UW School. This will allow students who are concerned about financing their education the ability to look towards Beloit as well instead of just a UW university.
With Beloit Commitment in place, increasing the number of students who can apply for the Porter Scholar program, and building relationships with schools, results are already starting to be seen.
“Submitted first-year Fall 2024 applications from Rock and Winnebago counties are up 50% year over year, as of today. Completed applications are up 29%. Three students have already indicated their plans to enroll,” Virgo said in an email exchange.
Beloit knows it lacks a local student presence within the college community. With its increased efforts, it is on the right track.
Featured Image Credit: Beloit College
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