Fall 2012 enrollment patterns at four-year institutions across the nation are producing a mixed picture of results, as a sampling of schools questioned this week found a variety of factors underlying enrollment experiences to date.
Official reporting of final fall enrollment numbers at most four-year institutions are as much as a month away, as institutions work through final upper class member registrations, freshman enrollment, drop and add periods and other enrollment related activities.
For now, however, as the fall enrollment season heads for the homestretch, some patterns seem fairly set and are reflecting fundamental changes in how institutions do business:
At the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where tuition and fees for a full-time resident student rose about $150 this year over last, semester hours are expected to increase this fall, despite an anticipated drop in enrollment of nearly 500 students.
“Any time you have increased semester credit hour production based on lower total enrollment the indication is that the enrolled students are enrolling for larger course loads as they intend to move quicker toward graduation,” said Dr. George Norton, associate vice president for student affairs. “That would have the added effect of improving graduation rates,” he added.
Norton said admissions criteria at the university remained the same for this year as last. At the same time, UTSA, one of the nations’ major Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), “has been more stringent in its application of the individual review process with the intent of enrolling a smaller class that is better prepared for college success compared to previous years,” Norton said.
The story is much the same at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), the Durham, N.C. campus of the University of the University of North Carolina System.
