2012-13 Edition First Impressions: Salisbury University (MD) Educated Quest.com Background Introduction to Salisbury 1 University Founded in 1925, Salisbury University has emerged from a public teacher’s Background college into a university with four privately-endowed colleges of business, lib- eral arts, science and education/professional studies. Salisbury received uni- versity status in 1988. Over the past two decades the University’s total enroll- ment has grown from 4,500 to more than 9,000 students, with around 7,500 being undergraduates. As Salisbury has grown it has become a more desired institution among not only Maryland residents, but also students in nearby states including Dela- ware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. More recently, resi- dents of New England states have come to make up a larger share of the stu- dent body. Around 14 percent of the University’s student body comes from U.S. states other than Maryland, according to the school’s 2014-15 Common Data Set, very high for a public college that is not the flagship research univer- sity in its state, nor a public honors college. Out-of-state students represented a fifth of last year’s incoming freshman class. The University is permitted, per the Maryland Legislature, to admit and enroll as much as 30 percent of the stu- dent body from from other states and nations. Salisbury University is competitively priced, charging lower tuition and fees within Maryland than several other public schools including the University of Maryland-College Park, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Towson University and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The only private college within Maryland of similar academic scope, Loyola University in Baltimore, is far more expensive. However, several liberal arts colleges in Maryland including Goucher, Hood, McDaniel, Mount St. Mary’s and Washington have shown a willingness to discount aggressively enough to interest students who are inter- ested in a smaller school. Salisbury has been able to separate itself from the other Maryland public col- leges and universities through its location as well as academic programs. 2 Maryland’s Eastern Shore is one of the most popular tourist and recreation dian GPA for students most recently admitted in 2012, 2013 and 2014 was and retirement destinations in the U.S., easily accessible to beaches in Dela- 3.70. One good reason to consider Salisbury: the school, while larger than lib- ware and Ocean City. The University has developed strong programs in the eral arts colleges and several similar public institutions, admits students to the Biological and Environmental Sciences, Exercise Science, Nursing and Respi- University versus a major (with the exception of the guaranteed Nursing pro- ratory Therapy. Salisbury has also done more to encourage business students gram). No student is capped out of a popular major as s/he might be at a to become entrepreneurs than most other universities. The school was most larger university. recently selected to host casting (business plan presentation) calls for Shark Tank, the popular ABC television show. Salisbury has also hosted its own busi- Notable alumni include Frank Perdue, former president of Perdue Farms, ness plan competition for nearly 30 years as well as the regional Maryland known on television as the “tough man who made a tender chicken;” Steve Shore Hatchery. The Perdue School of Business is accredited not only in Busi- Bisciotti, owner of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and Dan Quinn, recently hired ness, but also in Accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools as head coach of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, among many others. of Business (AACSB). The University of Maryland-College Park, by compari- Salisbury is an institution that is emerging because of its reasonable sticker son, is not similarly accredited. Towson is, although it has more than twice as price, its uniqueness through programs offered by the four privately-endowed many students as Salisbury. In addition, having been founded as a teacher’s schools as well as an attractive location for many college students to spend college, Salisbury is well invested in its education programs. four years. It is one of the best values in the U.S. for a good or very good stu- Salisbury is moderately selective. Approximately 55 percent of the students dent who must be cost conscious but does not want to attend a much larger who applied for the class that entered in 2014 were offered admission. About a public university. quarter of those admitted, 1150 students, decided to come. The middle 50 per- cent of the SAT range for these students was between 1070 and 1230 (out of 1600) for the Critical Reading and Math sections of the test. Over 60 percent of the admitted students scored below 600 on each section. SAT and ACT scores are less important for admission than they are at most emerging public schools. Salisbury offers test-optional admissions for students who have a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher in a college-preparatory program. However, the scores are required to be considered for merit scholarships. Freshman retention has averaged 83 percent for the freshman classes that entered between 2011 and 2013. Most recently, near half of the class (47 per- cent) that entered in 2010 graduated within four years. These numbers are likely to improve. Over the past three years Salisbury has successfully at- tracted students who have presented stronger academic credentials. The me- 3 Costs Tuition and Fees Scholarships 2 Debt This year Salisbury charged Maryland residents just over $8,500 in tuition and fees; Costs non-residents were assessed just under $17,000. The Total Cost of Attendance, in- cludlng tuition and fees, room and board and estimates for indirect charges for books, supplies and other essentials was approximately $23,100 for a Maryland resi- dent, $31,500 for a non-resident. In-state tuition and fees increased by just over five percent from the previous year; room and board charges went up by slightly more than two percent. Prospective students and their families should plan for an average annual increase of four percent for both. Low prices often mean low debt. Among Salisbury students who graduated in 2013, nearly 40 percent had no loans at all, according to the Project on Student Debt. The average student borrower borrowed approximately $23,500, $3,500 less than s/he was allowed to borrow through the Federal Stafford Student Loan program. Parent PLUS debts are also low. In 2011, the last year data was available from the Chroni- cle of Higher Education, just under 1,400 Salisbury parents borrowed an average of $9,700. This was $2,300 below the national average for all parent PLUS borrowers. Salisbury parents who had to borrow might have taken out loans because the Univer- sity, while charging a reasonable price, could not meet the full financial need for most of its students. On average, Salisbury met just under over half (52 percent) of its stu- dents’ financial need according to the school’s 2014-15 Common Data Set. Forty-two percent received need-based scholarships through Pell Grants, state scholarships or the University’s funds; the average award was just under $5,900. Merit awards are few. Only 12 percent of the undergraduates received such awards in 2013-14. They averaged approximately $2,300. More generous merit-based awards are available to students interested in the sciences. Salisbury awards scholarships through the four individual schools as well as the Alan and Patti Guerrieri Scholarship Fund. Given the SAT score range for the University (1060 to 1230, both out of 1600), it is fair to say that students who might have fallen in the middle of the applicant pool at the flagship state universities such as the Uni- versity of Maryland-College Park could qualify for a merit award from Salisbury as could students who considered mid-sized schools such as The College of New Jer- sey. Salisbury’s sticker prices are approximately $3,000 more than the in-state charges for the more selective New Jersey public schools (Rutgers, Rowan Univer- sity, The College of New Jersey and Ramapo College of New Jersey) 5 Comforts On-Campus Housing 3 Local Housing Market Salisbury has a two-year residency requirement for students who do not have family Comforts residing near campus. The room and board charge, averaging $10,600, is quite rea- sonable for a school in the MidAtlantic U.S. Students typically move off campus after their sophomore year. While nearly all of the first-year students who entered Salis- bury last year lived on campus, as did most of the sophomores, over 70 percent lived off campus. Salisbury offers cluster-style and suite-style residence halls for first-year students. Clusters are single-sex, essentially wings off a floor with a set of rooms (including sin- gles, doubles and triples) sharing a common bathroom. Opting for a triple room in a cluster-style hall can save a student $1,500 over a standard double room. Each suite-style hall links two rooms with a common bathroom. Depending on enrollment, the University makes spaces available to first-year students in Chesapeake Hall, which offers apartment-style living for up to eight students (four double rooms, two bathrooms) and Dogwood Village, which offers single rooms in small single-story cot- tages. All Salisbury residence halls are air conditioned, unusual for any college and laundry is included with the room charges. The University also offers 18 Living- Learning Communities (LLCs), with four for the Honors Program, the rest by major or interests. Students in the LLCs take a designated set of first-year classes together as well as live together.