In 2022, 94-percent of applicants to Stetson University opened their laptops to a letter welcoming them as new Hatters. 

Stetson University is best known for its namesake — John B. Stetson, an entrepreneur who created what we consider the modern cowboy hat. 

Of the 7,344 applicants to be an incoming class of Hatters in 2022, 6,903 were accepted, marking a 10-year-high for the university. 

Like other small private universities and the world, Stetson University was unprepared for COVID-19. The institution, in which 96 –percent of its undergraduate students were awarded federal, state, local, institutional or other sources of grant aid in 2021-2022 had a hole blasted in their future budget.

An easy answer for the increased acceptance over the last five years is that fewer students were applying. 

That would go against national trends, which show the total application volume increased by 30-percent from 2019-20 to 2022-23 as reported by the Common Application, a college admission organization that allows students to submit their applications to thousands of universities across the globe. Stetson was way off the average. 

     ***

Why?

In 2021, Stetson University hired Raymond Nault as Vice President For Enrollment Management. This presented notable hurdles when dealing with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: amidst a pandemic that convulsed colleges and terrified terraforms, Stetson needed someone to tackle the challenge of navigating what had never been explored before. Consequently, Nault chose to prioritize admitting students.

Nault was taking over a department that controls all applications, admissions, and final enrollment figures. 

“We admitted more students to help with funds,” Nault said. “We had to. We attempted to recruit more —  we just didn’t get the application volume.”  

In order to address this, Nault had a particular strategy. 

To battle the gap between budget and expectations, Nault chose to disregard incomplete applications instead of outright rejecting them. Just because a college application is started doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be completed, he reasoned. 

There could be elements missing — such as transcripts that would be required for admission. In the event these crucial elements are not included in the application, they would not be accounted for.  

For Nault, he saw this as a winning strategy to combat the effects of the pandemic.

“We have more net revenue,” Nault said. “You can do the things that the university wants to do new dorms, more study abroad opportunities, more faculty so you’re always balancing your yield.” 

After three years of working with Stetson and the highest admission rates on record, it was mutually decided that Nault would part ways with the university, according to Nault. 

***

In 2023, Jeffery Gates was hired as the New Senior VP For Enrollment And Marketing. He has a new strategy. Gates has 25 years of collegiate-level enrollment work in New York. He was presumably recruited to address the admissions rates.

“My strategy is to review every single application that comes in that is complete,” Gates said. “What I’ve done over the last 20 years or more is to review an application if there isn’t enough information. And after several times of asking students to complete their application, I would deny the application, because it’s incomplete.” 

Under Gates’ policy, acceptance rates for fall 2022 were recalculated to be 81 percent when they were reported to be 94 percent. This recalculation included what would happen in the applications that were disregarded in 2022 had been denied. 

Gates plans on having 13,000 applicants of which  8,100 are projected to be admitted. Under that plan, the admissions rate would be a record low 62-percent. 

Currently, in 2024, Stetson has received 11,519 applications and has admitted 8,043 of them. That shakes out to a projected 70 percent acceptance rate, just as Gates predicted.

***

Two strategies

Both Nault and Gates had presumably viable strategies based on different ways of calculation from the recommended practices that are outlined in the Guide to Ethical Practice in College Admission. There are no legal ramifications for the different calculations. Both are accepted under the guidelines.

For Hatters who just graduated, the 94-percent acceptance rate skewed the view of their accomplishments. 

“It was a lot more challenging to earn a spot in here when I applied in 2021,” Izais Ocasio ’24 said. “I had to apply early to just get a spot and then the acceptance rate was just increasing to where it almost made the work seem wasted.”

***

Hopefully, Jeffery Gates is here to stay for the long run. 

“I’ve been at this for four years,” Stetson University Admissions Data Specialist Peyton Hessler said. “There’s been three different directors of enrollment since I started.” 

Hessler is leaving the university to pursue other data analysis opportunities.

According to Admissions Director Shannon Greeley, turnovers are common at collegiate administrative jobs. 

“In higher education, there is a high turnover,” Greeley said. “From recruiters to people switching jobs, to people taking better opportunities elsewhere.”

***

Board of Trustees Chairman Steven Alexander finds reasons to be optimistic. Alexander pointed to new initiatives: hiring Ricky Ray as the new Director of Athletics and adding bathrooms and an elevator to Elizabeth Hall. Additionally, Alexander is currently working on a bond deal for the new resident hall that is set to break ground this summer. They will potentially sell $70 million worth of bonds to fund the resident hall. 

“All this is helping to start turning things,” Alexander said. “This is helping to drive these numbers in a better way.”