This year, the rise in tuition may show Wisconsin legislators

that the demand for more money could eventually drop the number of

applicants. According to University of Wisconsin officials,

freshman applications for UW dropped this fall from 21,271 last

year to 20,062 for the current term.

According to UW spokesman John Lucas, the number of applicants

for non-resident freshmen has gone down, while in-state applicants

went up slightly.

There were 71 more in-state freshman applications and 831 fewer

for out-of-state residents, which includes international

students.

“I think the drop in applications is due to tuition increase,”

UW Provost Peter Spear said.

Spear said that the number of overall applications at UW,

including transfer students, has grown for the past five years, but

has decreased by 3,331 applicants for this academic year, likely

due to higher tuition.

Vice Dean of Students Lori Berquam said deans are aware of the

situation.

“We are concerned about the decrease in the number of

out-of-state and international students,” she said.

Spear addresses the decrease of applicants with two different

concerns.

“I think the dropping number of applications brings us two

messages: one is that tuition is a concern for students; also,

international students are concerned about government regulations,”

he said.

Yet, Spear said UW has a number of policies and activities that

try to help international students in case they are delayed with

visa issues.

“We can only do these things from here,” Spear explained. “To

attract new students’ applications, we can only [find a] way to

make it easier for the international students in terms of health

and housing.”

UW acknowledged that international students might decide to not

attend the university this semester due to difficulties receiving a

student visa in a timely manner after new regulations were passed

to make applying for visas a more intensive process.

While the number of undergraduate applicants has gone down, the

number of graduate-student applications has risen steadily.

Spear said the application rate for graduate students has gone

up, and attributed the rise to the different types of grants that

students receive for tuition.

While many undergraduate students need aid from their parents as

well as loans and funds provided by the UW, numerous graduate

students get federal funding through research grants. Although some

teacher’s-assistant positions were terminated due to the recent

state budget cuts, many positions remained available.

Another factor for the increase in graduate-school applicants is

the slow job market, drawing recent graduates, among many others,

back for more schooling.

This year, in-state undergraduate students at UW must pay $350

more per semester than last year, bringing the annual total to

$4,554. Tuition increases for nonresident students are on the same

order, bringing out-of-state tuition to $18,554 per year.