Two looming crisis for higher education — demographic changes that mean fewer students coming into colleges and ever higher costs of tuition for those who do. Drew University and Raritan Valley Community College are partnering to address both issues under the leadership of Drew’s newest president MaryAnn Baenninger. She told NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams the agreement between Drew University and Raritan Community College was a way to look at where students are today, as if they are pursuing a degree by taking courses at a two year institution first.
“What we tried to do is really look at where students are today,” Baenninger said. “What they’re facing when they think about the four years at college and we’re looking at the kind of student who would come to Drew, kind of student who would come to Raritan and make the transitions seamless for the honor students.”
Under the new agreement between the two institutions, Baenninger said that a GPA of 3.25 or higher will be necessary to provide scholarships to honor students. She also said that the partnership between both will provide students an opportunity to spend time on the Drew University campus and allowed them to take courses. Through the agreement, Baenninger said that it will create a seamless transition for students.
When asked how the agreement will help with student loans, Baenninger said, “I’m sure that students are looking for whatever way they can, to pay their tuition and they’re also not sure of what they’re going to do when they start out. How they’re going to get that four year degree. So students are increasingly opting for community colleges for those two years.”
Community colleges fulfill the core requirements and Baenninger said that it also gives students a two year associates degree and that it gives students a starting point on the way to a four year degree. She also said one of the missions for community colleges is to get general education courses and the core curriculum settled for students.
On how the agreement will help with student loans, Baenninger said that it should help with student loans because students are choosing to reduce the cost of the first two years of college.
“It should help a lot with student loans because students are choosing to really reduce those first two years of college and it also is giving them a chance to get merit scholarships at Drew for the second two years,” she said. “So between those two things — the reduced tuition for community college and the very large merit scholarships for these honor students– it would dramatically reduce a student loan burden.”
When asked if Drew is considering forming more partnerships with other community colleges, Baenninger said that Drew University expects to form three or more partnerships but that Raritan is the first one.
Recently Drew University announced that the ACT and SAT exams will no longer be required in order to be considered for admission. Baenninger said the University decided not to use the test scores as part of the admission process because it is not a good predictor of a student’s success in college.
“A lot of people have been doing research on this for a long time,” said Baenninger. “Student populations are changing. It used to be that a very select group of students took the SAT and the ACT, now pretty much every student who is looking toward college is taking this. So it doesn’t predict as well as it did. GPA, student recommendations, what the student did in high school are much better predictors.”
Baenninger said that she believes that no longer requiring the SAT and ACT scores will help the University’s applicant pool.
On whether a school is looking for a well rounded student, Baenninger said, “That’s absolutely true because students are coming to experience a different life than they had in high school. They need to meet different kinds of students with different kinds of talent. Now different institutions are looking for different academic preparedness, so I would say at Drew you have to do well academically or you won’t be considered but along with that we are looking to shape the class.”