Lies, Damned Lies, and . . .
College enrollment figures. Saturday's article featured four colleges all trying their best to spin their numbers. Very apples-to-oranges in some of those numbers.
One thing to remember is that it is natural for enrollments to drop from fall to spring, so a drop in enrollment is nothing special. And of course QU's spring enrollment this year will be down from last year's....they had a bad recruiting year this year, so no surprise there. The article could have said that QU had a 92 percent fall-spring retention rate....now wouldn't that have sounded like cause to celebrate?
Culver's claim of a rise in enrollment from fall to spring is very surprising, and I have to say a bit suspicious. H-LG's figures are, at least as reported, incomprehensible. Students who enroll for the entire year are only counted in the fall? Doesn't make any sense. The spring enrollment increase is actually 6 percent (OK, 5.96), not 5.6.
John Wood's enrollment dropped 4 percent, but as is customary with the Herald-Whig, any potential negative news about John Wood is deeply buried. One teeny paragraph at the end of the story, and you have to calculate the percentage yourself.
One thing to remember is that it is natural for enrollments to drop from fall to spring, so a drop in enrollment is nothing special. And of course QU's spring enrollment this year will be down from last year's....they had a bad recruiting year this year, so no surprise there. The article could have said that QU had a 92 percent fall-spring retention rate....now wouldn't that have sounded like cause to celebrate?
Culver's claim of a rise in enrollment from fall to spring is very surprising, and I have to say a bit suspicious. H-LG's figures are, at least as reported, incomprehensible. Students who enroll for the entire year are only counted in the fall? Doesn't make any sense. The spring enrollment increase is actually 6 percent (OK, 5.96), not 5.6.
John Wood's enrollment dropped 4 percent, but as is customary with the Herald-Whig, any potential negative news about John Wood is deeply buried. One teeny paragraph at the end of the story, and you have to calculate the percentage yourself.
posted by Allthenewsthatfits at 6:02 AM
3 Comments:
Seems like reporting could have been much better on this story. Didn't anyone fact check. This is a good illustration of the level of journalism here in the big Q.
What kind of checks need to be made here? Not sure what the problems are. QU's enrollment has dropped. Culver's has improved. HLG doesn't include certain numbers in its winter enrollment figures. What else do you want to know?
I think the level of journalism in Q is generally high and competent, save for a few stories or poor research.
I love Quincy
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