How The Name Change Affected The University In Admissions

By: Kelli Carter and Jared Hargis 

Lynchburg College became the University of Lynchburg in July of 2018. With this name change things had to start changing gradually as a result.The alumni house is the home of admissions and this is the first building that students see when they arrive for a tour at the university.

Admission deals with a massive amount of things. For example there are recruiters who go to different states and talk about Lynchburg in order to get students. They also these recruitment counselors are in charge of going of logistics like financial aid, grades and important information like this with families at a one on one level. 

Due to all of the work that admission counselors do they have student workers to help out divvy up this work. These workers use to be called Enrollment Student Ambassadors but due to the name change it changed to University Ambassadors. 

The University Ambassadors, otherwise known as the UA’s, are a group of students who are behind the scenes helping to recruit new Hornets. The UA’s work closely with the office of admissions. They provide a student’s perspective of what campus is like and allows a prospective student to feel comfortable. 

They are responsible for giving tours, running open houses, making 45 phone calls a week to prospective students, and writing 15 personalized notecards. They try their hardest to make everyone who comes on a tour feel welcomed and even want to become a student at the University of Lynchburg. 

The tour route has not changed due to the new name change. The tour starts off at the alumni house, goes through all 3 floors of Drysdale, Walks through the dell to go into the first year dorm of tate, shows a showroom in tate, then walks outside again to friendship circle, then to the schewel, through the library, out again to hopwood, then to Shellenberger Field and lastly ending where it all started in the Alumni house. 

They are also responsible for having updated information in order to share with families. According to 2017 and 2019 fact sheet, some of the information that were affected were:

Lynchburg College 

University of Lynchburg 

GPA:3.3 , SAT:1120, ACT:22

3.4 GPA, 1100 SAT:1100 , ACT:22

2nd year retention rate: 75 %

2nd year retention rate:79

Varsity athletes: 17

Varsity athletes: 25%

Majors: 51 Minors: 62

Majors: 53 Minors: 66

Total number of students: 2850

Total number of students: 3000

This Information can affect the decision of any student that chooses to attend the school. Not only where numbers changing but the names of different programs changed like the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the liberial arts curriculum as a whole as well. 

During training that happens at the beginning of the year for both old and new UA’s they got the chance to learn about the new general education requirements for the first years. Called the Dell +, UA’s got to talk with the new Dean of Students, Dr. Aaron Smith, and go over what the Student Development and the Office of Equity and Inclusion are. 

Aaron Smith, the new dean of students and former head of the Office of Equity and Inclusion pointed out to the UA’s the importance of talking about this office. Due to the name change there will be people with more diverse backgrounds so them knowing about such an office can make them feel welcomed. 

Sam Vogel, a UA and former ESA said, “I had the opportunity to be a UA and an ESA so I know a lot about lynchburg college and then the change over to University of Lynchburg. It was hard to relearn all of this new information and small things like names of programs or how many college we have taken a lot to get use to. I feel like the name change was done because our school offers as many programs compared to other Universities.”

The UA’s event coordinator, Nicole Marburger, a U of L alum of the class of 2014 and 2018 said, 

“Last year we had 2,528 students get admitted to the University of Lynchburg. We still get 60% of our students from the state of VA as we did when we were Lynchburg College, but the 40% out of state students are from Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina. We use to get a majority of out of state students from MD, PA, NJ and New England area.”

This shift can be a result of many things and some that Marburger offered was the fact that some of these northerner students want to stay closer to home due to how far it is and these southern students feel like it is close enough but still far away. 

Marburger then said, “with the name change it has opened doors for international recruitment, since to them a College is considered our equivalent of a Community College. So being a University has now opened up the doors for international students. If a student applies to the University they get a decision back from us within 2 weeks max. If they apply early they get the opportunity to participate in the Fall Scholarship Day and receive the aid package sooner than others who wait to apply.”

Grace Ball, A UA  also a student who was admitted when the name change happened said, “ I know the school as the University of Lynchburg and not what it was like at Lynchburg college. For me I chose this school because of the programs that they offer and the fact that it is a liberal arts school and you get to try everything before actually settling down in a major. I am very proud to be a Hornet and show off this school to prospective students. 

The University is on a rolling acceptance so for more information on how to apply or to seen up a tour visit Lynchburg.edu or call 434-544-8300. 

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