Getting To Know: Quinnipiac University (CT)-Again

Published by Stuart Nachbar at June 16, 2024

Quinnipiac pulls out the stops to help a student feel educated, happy and safe on campus.

I have been to two non-religious schools like this, Elon University and High Point University, both in North Carolina. The major differences between Quinnipiac and those schools are that:

Each undergraduate college at Quinnipiac has its own career development office, much like larger schools.
Quinnipiac has offered law and health-related degrees for a longer period of time and has a medical school.
“The Q ,” (my nickname) has had a longer experience granting advanced degrees.
Quinnipiac offers advanced degrees towards an adult market because of its location.
Upper-class students who live on campus are geographically separated from the first and second-year students. They bus or drive to classes
Quinnipiac has had high-profile athletic success, most recently winning the NCAA title in Men’s Ice Hockey.
The health science programs have the largest undergraduate enrollment, attracting about a quarter of the undergraduate student body.

Sacred Heart University, a Catholic university located about an hour away in Fairfield, has been no less aggressive at matching Quinnipiac for academic offerings and comforts as well as merit aid. This school has similar offerings in the health professions. The same is true for Seton Hall University in New Jersey, which also has a medical school.

With growth came greater responsibility not only for academics, but also for creating a livable campus setting.

Quinnipiac has a very nice setting that shows well to prospective students and their parents, even on cold, snowy days. The Mount Carmel (pictures here)and the York Hill campus were built from the ground up including upper-class housing (with its own student center) and the M&T Bank Arena, which has separate venues for basketball and hockey. The Mount Carmel campus, is a continuing work in progress in a beautiful wooded area near Sleeping Giant State Park, one of the few mountainous areas in Connecticut. An updated residence hall, new business school building and another academic building will open this fall. The third campus in nearby North Haven hosts the education, law and medical schools as well as the health science programs.

I was blown away by the facilities for communications, engineering, the law school and the health professions that I saw on the tours of Mount Carmel and North Haven as well as the residence hall tours that I saw online. If you are interested in Quinnipiac and wanted to see more, check out The College Tour program on the school. I have dropped some campus photos below.

I attended a university (Rutgers) where I had to use the campus bus system to get to classes. So, the campus arrangement at Quinnipiacwas somewhat familiar to me. In some ways I get it. There’s only so much space that the university could dedicate to parking and the traffic that goes with it. In addition, while Quinnipiac has Greek social life that engages about a quarter of the undergraduate student body, it does not have Greek houses.Nor does the university accommodate them in a village setting as UConn does. Hockey fans might come to like Quinnipiac when they become juniors and seniors. It’s easy to walk to the arena, and party after a victory. Another phrase that I heard twice on this visit was “journey to work,” as if taking a bus was a preparation for life when you had to commute to get to a job.

Quinnipiac is too far from New York to make a semester-long internship possible for more than one or two days a week. However,.the university offers Los Angeles and Washington semesters as well as study abroad. New Haven is the nearest city with plenty of entertainment and eating/drinking places to check out, including great pizza. However, it really helps to have access to a car.

Quinnipiac attracts motivated B+ students.

Aside from the programs in the health professions, it’s not hard to get into Quinnipiac. The Class of 2027 profile shows me that Quinnipiac primarily attracts students who live within three-four hours from campus. Test scores are a bit below schools like Rutgers-New Brunswick or UConn, but admissions are test optional for all programs. I could guess that Quinnipiac might be a fall back for students-especially those interested in the health professions–who considered a school such as Boston University or Northeastern, but the facilities and a merit scholarship were too good to turn down. I have also found that families interested in accelerated or assured pathways into health professions that required advanced degrees were less price sensitive than other college-going families. Quinnipiac has invested wisely to attract and educate them.

Quinnipiac has nearly 22,000 alumni in the New York area and more than 6,500 based in and around Boston registered in LinkedIn.com. The Hartford area is also well represented with nearly 4,700 alumni. Students and alumni, aka Bobcats, will have no problem gathering for a hockey watch party in these areas. But the base is thin beyond there.

One thing that surprised me: undergraduate enrollment has gone down.

In fall of 2017, according to the university’s institutional research Quick Facts, Quinnipiac had over 7,300 undergrads. In the Fall of 2020, following the height of the pandemic, undergraduate enrollment dropped to just over 6,800. Then I looked at the university’s 2022-23 Common Data Set and saw that it dropped below 6,100. The numbers of graduate and professional students, which would include those in accelerated or dual-degree programs went from 2,900 (2017 and 2020) to just over 2,700 (2022). Freshman retention has been between 86 and 89 percent since 2017. Four-year grad rates have remained over 70 percent, which is excellent

I don’t know if there is a conscious decision on the university’s part to reduce the enrollment to avoid overcrowding the housing and managing class sizes to offer a better personal experience, or if the school proved to be too expensive for too many admitted students. I looked at the four Quick facts sheets and Common Data Sets available online. Here’s what I found:

Yield rates were 12,11,11 and 10 percent over consecutive reporting years.
The percentage of students who received merit awards jumped from 28 to 40 percent.
However, the school could meet, on average, just over two-thirds of need. That’s low, considering that Quinnipiac is an expensive school.
The student-faculty ratio dropped from 15 to 1 to 11 to 1 while the number of faculty stayed about the same.

Quinnipiac is expensive, even with the merit aid.

Aside from D-1 varsity athletes and promising local students, the largest merit award for the current academic year is $33,000. The estimated cost of attendance for the upcoming academic year is $76,500. Quinnipiac will be less expensive than non-resident costs for Rutgers-New Brunswick, UConn or UMass-Amherst for those who receive the;larger awards, but the average award will likely be lower. Those who like the dual degree or accelerated programs might save a year as well. However, if your budget leans more towards Home State U, consider another school. Quinnipiac did not disclose average student loan debt numbers on its 2022-23 Common Data Set. Nor did the university disclose them to US News.

Conclusions

Quinnipiac is a University of the Future for many B-plus kids. It meets their students where they’re at, provided that their families can cover the costs.

Report Card: Quinnipiac University

Four-Year/Six-Year Graduation Rates: A/A
Freshman Retention: B+
Curriculum: A
Costs: C
Comforts: A
Community: B+
Connections: B+ (Boston, Connecticut, New York City)/C (elsewhere)

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