Western Mass. college falls short of enrollment goal by half
After nearly closing in 2019, a Western Massachusetts college continues to face challenges, missing its 2025 enrollment goal by half. Instead of recruiting 300 students, Hampshire College enrolled about 150 new students. That makes for a total of 750 full-time students, Jennifer Chrisler, Hampshire’s newly named president, told MassLive in November.
Chrisler attributes some of the admissions challenges to other institutions opening up their waitlists and taking more students than usual, forcing even more competition between institutions to vie for the same students.
Many universities struggled with a decline in international students due to federal policies. “That had a downstream sort of trickle effect, and we were certainly not immune from that,” Chrisler said.
She also attributes the missed enrollment target to fewer college-aged people in the U.S.
Hampshire has faced serious financial challenges after nearly closing in 2019. Since then, the institution laid off non-faculty employees, suspended certain benefits and required senior leadership to take pay cuts, among other actions.
Read more: ‘A rat fleeing a sinking ship’: Students, staff, alumni react to Hampshire woes
Missing an enrollment target by half will force the college to push back its goal of financial stability by a year and a half, Chrisler said. Hampshire is now aiming for its operating revenue and expenses to be in balance in two and a half years, she said.
How Hampshire College is trying to rebound
Despite the difficulty of the last admissions cycle, Chrisler has a positive attitude moving forward. “We are sort of at this interesting transition point with me as the ninth president, where we get to reimagine for ourselves what this next chapter of Hampshire’s history is. And that gives lots of momentum and energy and creativity to the people who work, live, study here,” she said.
While it’s too early to project the college’s application numbers for this year, the college has seen an uptick in applications to just over 2,000 in comparison to this time last year, a college spokesperson said.
Chrisler said the college has raised $53.6 million toward its $60 million fundraising goal and is pushing for 300 first year students and transfers this year.
She said the college has a stable admissions team and a better understanding of what needs to change, such as creating updated marketing materials and a virtual tour of campus and traveling more to recruit students and to attend college fairs.
“The way that we educate undergraduates is so distinctive. And we think there’s lots of opportunity to excite more students to come to Hampshire,” Chrisler said.
Hampshire’s previous president, Edward Wingenbach, made a similar argument in 2024 to MassLive before cuts and layoffs were announced.
However, Chrisler still sees a clear path forward. “There’s lots of hard work to do. I have a lot of confidence in the fact that we have a team of really talented people here who are plugging away at that,” Chrisler said.
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