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| Freshmen enrollment, admittance requirements
to increase |
by
Jana Nordstand
Staff Writer |
The freshman class is the largest
it has ever been, and it will continue to grow.
The pressure lies on Appalachian State University’s shoulders
to increase the freshman class by 25 students each year. This number
is projected in an official plan that Appalachian hopes to put into
effect until the year 2012. Although this project has not yet been
approved, Appalachian hopes it will keep the overall headcount from
growing too large.
The pressure to increase the freshman class is on all 16 universities
in the University of North Carolina system. The concern is that
these universities must share the numbers of North Carolina graduates,
and in order to adhere to this, the number of admittance of freshmen
must gradually increase.
“We are under a lot of pressure from the university system
to grow, and that is something we have to take seriously because
we are a public school. We don’t really have much choice,”
Dr. Bobby H. Sharp, Director of Institutional Research & Planning,
said.
In February of 2003, the freshman class goal was 2,425. Then Appalachian
received correspondence from the Vice-President of the United States’
office that the freshman class for fall 2003 must increase by 50,
Sharp said.
“We can only enroll what is approved. This is the first time
we have ever been told what this number should be. Until now, we
have always let the freshman class fluctuate,” Sharp said.
In the unofficial plan that sets a freshman class increase at 25
per semester, the overall total student headcount is not expected
to increase much by 2012.
For fall of 2003, Appalachian hoped to enroll 2,475 freshmen. The
number only missed the mark by two, with the number of enrolled
freshmen at 2,473. The total number of students enrolled at Appalachian
this year is around 13,362, but that number exceeded the expected
amount. The total goal had originally been set at 13,450.
The biggest problem encountered by the freshman enrollment increase
is housing. However, with an increase in the building of off-campus
housing, some of the pressure has been taken off the university
to house students on-campus.
“Had we not had additional space off-campus, we would not have
been able to admit as many students as we did,” Dr. Gregory
S. Blimling, the vice chancellor for student development, said.
In 2000, only 773 students lived off-campus. This fall the number
jumped to 1,037. Forty percent of sophomores and juniors still occupy
on-campus housing, but with the increase in the freshman class,
this number was limited to make room for the freshmen required to
live on campus.
After the dust settles from the hectic first weeks, the number of
freshmen enrolled will begin to settle as well.
About 15 to 17 percent of freshmen will not return as sophomores,
and many leave within the first couple of weeks. With this fluctuation
in consideration, the overall headcount should not increase significantly,
even if the initial number of enrolled freshmen does increase.
The freshmen that do leave are often those that are out-of-state
or the furthest from home.
“Distance does play a factor,” Blimling said.
Out-of-state enrollments account for 14 percent of the freshmen
roster, with 28 freshmen officially citizens of other countries,
including Brazil, China, Liberia, Thailand and Barbados.
Forty-one states are represented at Appalachian, while 91 out of
the 100 counties in North Carolina are represented. Wake and Mecklenburg
are the largest of these counties present. Watauga High School has
the largest number of graduates enrolled at Appalachian with 71.
Freshman enrollment has risen, but so have the admittance requirements.
The preliminary SAT average is 1116 (re-centered). The highest score
received was a 1540 and 41 freshmen had SAT scores greater than
or equal to 1400 and an additional 142 had scores greater than or
equal to 1300. Four students scored perfect 800s on the verbal portion
of the SAT and over 548 students had high school cumulative grade
point averages of a 4.00 or better. Eleven students were valedictorians
in their graduating class.
“Everything about Appalachian is growing stronger by the year.
The freshman class increase can only be something that will push
us into the future,” Mandee L. Moody, a senior Communications
major, said.
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