Getting To Know: DePauw University (IN)

Published by Stuart Nachbar at August 28, 2024

DePauw is largely Midwestern in terms of the student body.

While many private liberal arts colleges hope to grow out-of-state enrollments, DePauw’s has grown within Indiana and the other Great Lakes states: Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. About half of the current students come from Indiana, up from 42 percent in 2018. The Great Lakes states now represent over three-quarters of all students. This says a lot about the university’s marketing within its backyard. At the same time, the student body has become more diverse, and over a fifth come from outside the US.

DePauw University fits the thinking behind a CTCL.

CTCL schools tend to offer many strengths found in an exceptionally selective liberal arts college, without the exceptional selectivity. Fifty-four percent of applicants for the Class of 2027 were accepted. Interesting to me: less than ten percent of the entering class submitted test scores for admissions. The average GPA was a 3.9. DePauw is a “single doorways” school. Incoming freshmen are not admitted to a major or a college within the university. It is quite common for DePauw students to double, even triple, major or carry a major and multiple minors.

There are some interesting academic strengths of DePauw University.

DePauw is structured somewhat like Oberlin in that both schools grant the Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Music (BM) and Bachelor of Music Education. Also, like Oberlin, students can earn the BA and the BM, though it will take more time to do it. DePauw is also structured somewhat like Susquehanna University in Central Pennsylvania, in that it has its own business school as well as a strong music program. However, Susquehanna has about 300 more students than DePauw. But there are also areas where DePauw stands out on its own.

DePauw offers 51 majors, more than many liberal arts schools as well as 61 minors. Some of these are quite hard to find at a school of this size including Classical Archeology, Classical Civilization, Design Studies, Geology and Kinesiology, among others. . Several majors are also minors, including business, visual and performing arts, and pre-professional subjects.
Eight majors in the visual and performing arts as well as Creative Writing. Film & Media Arts and Museum Studies are in their own school, appropriately called The Creative School. DePauw plans to invest $10 million in renovations to support this school.
There is considerable instruction in foreign languages, including Greek and Latin.
The School of Business and Leadership offers four majors: Actuarial Science, Business Analytics, Economics and Finance. Other traditional business disciplines such as Accounting and Marketing are offered as minors.
Eight Pathways are well-defined at DePauw, playing to the current and past strengths of the university. These pathways include Archeology, Entrepreneurship, Graphic Design, International Affairs, Journalism, Law, Medicine & Health and Sustainability.
These Pathways and other instruction are further supported by the Honor Scholars and Fellows programs.
I don’t know of another school that operates its own farm and its own nature park that support academic studies close to campus.

DePauw has a very nice campus.

If you look at YouTubes of campus you will be convinced that many days are sunny days at DePauw. While that is not likely to be true, the campus is quite well maintained, interiors as well as exteriors. The student-run television station, did, however, report recently about living conditions in the older residence halls. My sense from a distance is that the school does try to take care of things, but an older campus has a lot to take care of. I dropped some photos below, courtesy of the university.

DePauw has considerable resources to aid its students.

DePauw’s endowment, over $750 million, ranks third among CTCL schools after Oberlin and Denison University (OH), according to the National Association of College & University Business Officers.The endowment also ranks 32nd among all private liberal arts colleges in the country.

The university’s resources enhance the academic experience and lower financial; burdens for many students. Nearly half of the Class of 2027 received merit scholarships that averaged over $37,500. DePuaw’s average need-based award was over $42,000. The average award, either merit or need-based, covered at least half of the direct charges (tuition, fees, room & board).

While about three-quarters of 2023 graduates had to borrow, the borrowers owned, on average, less than $25,000. They could have borrowed as much as $27,000 from the Federal Student Loan Program. Interesting to me, while DePauw might undercut Home State U for some students, the university does not claim to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need. DePauw reported that it met 88 percent for the Class of 2027.

The pandemic hurt DePauw’s enrollment, graduation and retention rates.

Freshman retention has exceeded 90 percent for most of the past two decades. But four-year graduation rates, which often exceeded 80 percent, dropped just below 70 percent for the Classes of 2022 and 2023. Enrollment was at over 2,200 students ten years ago. It is now at just over 1,800 students. However, the alignment into three schools, and the vast resources behind the academics, presents the potential to raise the enrollment closer to past numbers.

Greek life is quite popular at DePauw.

It engages about two-thirds of the student body, unique to any school of any size. That’s actually down from 1996, when 76 percent of the students decided to go Greek. Greek houses on this campus are as stately as I have seen at much larger schools like Indiana University-Bloomington. However, the majority of the student body does not live in them, and some Greek organizations do not have their own houses. However, Greek social organizations, especially those that have houses, also have dues. That adds to the cost of the education, though it might be made up through lower housing costs. I did find it interesting to read this paragraph about the importance of the Greek system in the university’s strategic plan:

Build on our over 170-year history of fraternity and sorority life at DePauw to develop an inclusive, equitable, and values-centered 21st century liberal arts college model for fraternity and sorority life.

I must concede that I have not seen Greek life and inclusion mentioned in the same sentence in another school’s strategic plan. Mary Beth Petrie elaborated on this in our conversation. I will need to look more closely when I read strategic plans posted publicly by other schools, especially liberal arts colleges.

The social life at DePauw is likely to be more campus based than other schools.

This is partly because of the size of the Greek system and because everyone lives on campus, even if they are not in a fraternity or sorority. It’s also a big sports school, competing in 23 D-3 varsity sports, more than Butler or Purdue compete at the D-1 level. A fair share of students are also varsity athletes. Combined with DePauw’s Nature Park, Greencastle has a large park system for a small town. But while Greencastle is within easy driving distance of Bloomington or Indianapolis, it is a very small town. If you need to do a big shop, you need access to a car to make the schlepp.

Conclusions

I’m really impressed by the academics and career preparation at DePauw. I can see why this is one of the Colleges That Change Lives. DePauw also does more than most private institutions to be affordable, while also maintaining an expensive feel to the campus. However, I believe that the DePauw experience will be better for those who want a campus-based social life in a tight-knit community, which becomes even tighter knit for those who go Greek. DePauw offers many things that you might find at schools with much lower acceptance rates. But it helps to be familiar with the Midwest, or at least be an outgoing person, to take best advantage of what this university has to offer.