I am concerned that Brandeis may have to lower its standards for accepting applicants into its student body. Why do I have this concern? Because I think that fewer people will be applying to Brandeis University.Despite the fact that the University has had fewer applicants than it had in previous years, it has decided to increase enrollment for the Class of 2014 from 750 students to 825 students in order to gain a little more revenue. This decreases competition and increases the chance for less qualified students to be accepted into the University.

We are already seeing fewer applications from students looking to join the Class of 2013. If there are fewer high school seniors that are interested in Brandeis, it is unlikely that the University's plan to expand the Class of 2014 will be successful.

According to Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva, Brandeis has received approximately 6,500 applications for the Class of 2014. Villanueva's numbers represent a 12.2-percent decrease from last year's statistics at around this same time in the admissions process. One reason for this is that the faltering economy has provoked people to look to apply to less expensive colleges like state schools. With fewer applicants, Brandeis' selectivity will inevitably decline, especially if Brandeis offers admission to even more students than usual.

I believe this decline can also be attributed to issues within the school itself. Our budget problems have left us in a particularly difficult financial condition. These economic hardships have forced us to make considerable sacrifices. The latest casualties of our monetary struggles include the Rose Art Museum, the Linsey pool and a potential loss of some academic departments and the golf team. The fewer features our school has to offer, the less appealing it will seem to all of the potential applicants. Not to mention all the alarming press we've been getting over the Rose closing.

Of course, I hope that every applicant succeeds no matter what his or her background be. I don't wish to deny any prospective student the opportunities this school has granted me and the rest of the student body. But as more and more underqualified students matriculate, we'll have to face the facts. Ultimately, if my prediction that a consequence of Brandeis' plan to increase enrollment will be a considerably less qualified student body is correct, I believe that there will be serious repercussions for our school.

Brandeis' prestige and academic standing as an institution of education would start to flounder. I predict that fewer donors will readily contribute large sums of money to support the University. Moreover, fewer of Brandeis' esteemed professors will experience the same satisfaction in teaching here if the general student population is less prepared for a Brandeis education. This, on top of all of our other problems, is definitely not something that we would like to happen.

I am concerned about what could happen in the long term if present trends in the economy and in school policy continue as they currently are. Hopefully, we will weather this storm and eventually come out of it alive and well without having to sacrifice or diminish our academic standing.