The college’s Admitted Student Days have drawn hundreds of prospective students to campus this month. Prospective students are showing up, committing early and leaving excited. 

That matters. 

Unlike current students who enrolled during a period of rapid change, incoming students are making their decisions with more visibility. They are not walking into the same uncertainty. They are choosing Columbia with those realities in view. 

The momentum that Columbia is seeing can point to deposits tracking upward, engagement climbing and Admitted Student Days drawing record registrations. The college’s own strategic plan, Renaissance Rising: Shaping Tomorrow Together, lists stabilizing enrollment as an institutional priority for 2026 through 2029.

The college had also introduced financial incentives tied to early commitment, including a one-year $2,500 scholarship for students who committed by March 15. Combined with additional incentives committed to attending Admitted Student Days, the strategy is clearly designed to push students forward toward committing as efficiently as possible. 

Recruitment is only a part of what the Renaissance Rising plan commits to. The plan calls for strategies to retain and support students once they arrive.

Columbia needs to put the same energy into keeping students, the ones who will enroll in the fall and the ones already here.

As of 2023, Columbia’s first year retention rate was 66%. These numbers have stayed in the same general range for many years. Spring 2025 enrollment fell 11% from the previous fall semester — a figure that includes December graduates, but still signals mid-year attrition. 

The college deserves credit for taking recruitment seriously and for building programming that connects with prospective students. 

Now it needs to make sure it delivers.

Columbia is doing the hard work of convincing students to say yes. The next step is building an institution that gives them a reason to stay.

Copy edited by Katie Peters