I'm teaching at two places this fall. At one place my classes are full. At the other, a CC, enrollment is low and I already have had one class cancelled. CC students often wait until late in the summer or even the first week of the semester to enroll but I suspect that another class may get cancelled before then.
I'm curious what the patterns are around the US.
Mid-June is way too early to cancel a class, unless your admincritters want only courses with guaranteed maxed out enrollments, solving any problems with long waitlists by raising caps.
I don't teach at a CC, but my 4 year also has students who wait until the very last moment to register. We usually don't decide to cancel until 1 -2 weeks before the semester starts.
Quote from: lightning on June 14, 2023, 06:30:08 AMMid-June is way too early to cancel a class, unless your admincritters want only courses with guaranteed maxed out enrollments, solving any problems with long waitlists by raising caps.
My guess is that they looked at the scheduled classes and the projected enrollments and decided that they had too many classes, so they cancelled some... or maybe just mine!
Not the US, but we're over-full for the fall. Our department is hiring someone part-time to help with the overflow.
As a result of the current staff strike, however, enrollments may well plummet.
Our lower level courses always see a huge wave of last minute enrollment. Unfortunately, we can predict with better than fair accuracy how the students will perform in the class based on how late they enroll.
We're strongly up in incoming first year enrollment for a second year in a row, which is great because our COVID enrollments were super low.
Enrollment at my place looks about the same as last year. We have always had relatively stable enrollments, even during the pandemic. However, last year, we did have a slight dip for the first time and the admincritters freaked out and took out an axe to sharpen. This year, they will probably use the axe, even though in the long view and compared with most places, we are not really doing that badly, in terms of enrollments. However, like last year, I anticipate pre-mature course cancellations in late June/early July, when the faculty are not paying attention.
Quote from: mythbuster on June 14, 2023, 07:54:22 AMOur lower level courses always see a huge wave of last minute enrollment. Unfortunately, we can predict with better than fair accuracy how the students will perform in the class based on how late they enroll.
My current school - a regional HBCU - allows students to enroll up to the third week of classes, even in five week summer classes. You can guess how well that works out. As you might imagine, faculty are blamed for not "meeting the students where they are" when they inevitably fail.
I'm moving to a different school in the Fall, and one of the things I'm looking forward to most is not having to deal with this issue.
The administration here has been admitting larger classes each year the last few years, no doubt for financial reasons, but then seems surprised and unprepared when students are upset that they can't get the housing and classes they want because of course supply of those hasn't increased. Faculty are left fielding pleas from students to let them into already full courses. In my department we have agreed not to do this-- let the students go complain to the administration about it, and our answer will be that they need to give us new hires to meet the demand if they want that problem solved.
In Canada. On Reddit there are first year (incoming) students who are panicking because there are no openings in their required courses. I advise them to check with their program advisors (professional advisors, not faculty members doing a secondary duty) but if Reddit is indicative (it may not be, but I know some courses filled quickly even when I logged in right at course selection opening) we will be adding more sections for first year required courses in the sciences.
Quote from: Puget on June 15, 2023, 09:33:22 AMFaculty are left fielding pleas from students to let them into already full courses. In my department we have agreed not to do this-- let the students go complain to the administration about it, and our answer will be that they need to give us new hires to meet the demand if they want that problem solved.
Good to know that, in some places, there is some collective faculty push-back toward admin. on such matters.
I'm seeing enrollment drops in new England at the CC level.
At our program at an R1, we're about 50% over what we planned for.
Quote from: waterboy on June 21, 2023, 02:11:02 PMAt our program at an R1, we're about 50% over what we planned for.
Good news in that it bucks the reigning narrative.
Bad news is that it is more than likely that the unexpected students will not be supported other than with your hide, and the net proceeds from you working extra to support the unexpected students will probably not be used to support your unit in the future--actually might be used as justification to cut your state allocation even further because you have proven that you can be more tuition-driven.
Anyone that thrives in the face of austerity, will be rewarded and punished appropriately.
My university is in crisis and an enrollment drop (plus likely mismanagement by the upper admin) is driving a major budget shortfall. That said, I'm at a regional campus, and our enrollment has held steady.
My undergrad alma mater has rented out a hotel for the next year as an extra residence, as they guarantee residence for all first year students. The last time they had to do that was the double cohort (back when Ontario eliminated grade 13, so there were two cohorts of students, the grad 12s and the grade 13s graduating the same year, so also more university applications for Ontario students). So, no issues with enrolment. Plenty of upper years struggling to find housing, though, with rents increasing pretty much everywhere. Granted, Canada is very different from the U.S. - we have far fewer private universities and most students attend public universities if they choose to go to university.
Just saw an article in the local paper to the effect that our region's closest four-year college has seen its freshman enrollment grow by 26% over last year. They're also up in terms of transfer students, and have a noticeable increase in on-campus residential students.
Talk about bucking the trend! The article touted the fact that they are about the cheapest college in the state, which is true enough. The school spokesperson did not mention that they also have very wide-open admissions standards. Wonder how well they'll be able to hold onto that bumper crop of freshmen?
I wish them well. Open-enrollment though they may be, they do fill an important niche in the region.
holding steady here again. 10-year trend shows gradual increase in enrolled students, over time. Honestly, we don't have the infrastructure to support too many more traditional on-campus students.
I saw yesterday that the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has also seen an increase in enrollment. Not as surprising, I guess, since they're the state's flagship school.
The university I'm at for my postdoc has so many students that there are far too many without housing, even though the semester began this past Tuesday. It's crazy. In almost every province, there is a shortage of housing for students. Most universities only guarantee residence on campus for first years, and some can't even do that any longer due to the increase in the number of first year students. Off campus housing is hard to find, expensive , and sadly prone to exploitation and scams. So the Canadian universities I'm familiar with have increasing enrolment, although some only have those increases due to international students. My UG alma mater is one uni that used to guarantee residence for all first year students. Now it's a lottery, as there are more first year students than residence beds.
Glad I'm a postdoc and not a first year student. Housing has become insane in the past several years.
IHE: Boosting Enrollment Against the Odds (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/09/07/what-does-it-take-buck-downward-enrollment-trends)
I've learned that Alma Mater has also seen a substantial increase in freshman enrollment. It looks like it's a real trend across the state. I guess students are to at least some extent starting to get back into higher education after the pandemic-era slump.
We just got our numbers. Not looking good. Expecting some unpleasant directives coming from on high.
Highly dependent on area: geographic and discipline In Engineering, it's crazy, the majors are all impacted. Being in CA it's always crazy. Some places like Cal Poly SLO have EVERY major impacted. The students already there find it hard to change majors.
Quote from: apl68 on September 08, 2023, 07:35:36 AMI saw yesterday that the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has also seen an increase in enrollment. Not as surprising, I guess, since they're the state's flagship school.
That is three years in a row of substantial increase! Last year (https://news.uark.edu/articles/61885/enrollment-tops-30-000-for-first-time-new-records-for-number-of-arkansans), undergrad enrolment was 15,479 in state, 15,457 out of state, and 1,144 international. So not only is the university outcompeting other state schools for Arkansas students, it draws extremely well from other states. (A colleague there says admissions acts as if they are a Texas university.)
That campus has figured out how to be one of the "haves" that is thriving. I hope that translates to good facilities and a fair deal for faculty.
News is muddied by differences of opinion among board members / admincritters.
By FTE alone my old school / wife's school is down only 79 students this semester----tuition is cheap here, so that's only $400K + FTE support. It hurts, of course, but not nearly as much as past semesters.
However, for reasons unknown, one of the mysterious VPs-of-student-success-something-something-something puts the headcount much lower be eliminating all part-time students from the equation. Why the VP wants to do this is open for discussion; presumably he wants to cut more positions in the near future and is unhappy that the numbers are not worse, at least that is the theory.
I visited Alma Mater's campus briefly on Saturday. Looked like it was hopping with activity. It was good to see.
Enrollments are very high at the moment, but tensions with India may spell trouble for the winter or summer.
Quote from: secundem_artem on September 18, 2023, 12:26:33 PMWe just got our numbers. Not looking good. Expecting some unpleasant directives coming from on high.
It's official. The knives are out and blood will flow. The time of crying, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments is upon us.
Quote from: secundem_artem on September 25, 2023, 10:12:08 AMQuote from: secundem_artem on September 18, 2023, 12:26:33 PMWe just got our numbers. Not looking good. Expecting some unpleasant directives coming from on high.
It's official. The knives are out and blood will flow. The time of crying, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments is upon us.
Sorry, man. It's not much fun when the tsunami hits.
We are down 7% from Fall 2020--not good with as many students as we have. Of course this has nothing to do with the graduate medical and health professions colleges where I work (we are at capacity of course), but the undergrad campus and rest of the grad school is suffering--Lots of upper admin turmoil to be expected concerning undergrad numbers...
We had the 2nd largest freshman class ever at FishProfU. No plan was in place to deal with the huge influx, and no faculty hires, even VAP, are forthcoming.
Yeah, that'll work.
In the meantime, the Full-Court Press on retention is underway, and I am getting hostile emails from students demanding to know why they got a Non-Attendance warning to an online, asynchronous class (you haven't done anything, including the syllabus quiz). Fun.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on September 25, 2023, 09:19:02 AMEnrollments are very high at the moment, but tensions with India may spell trouble for the winter or summer.
Yes, I guess we'll see how things play out. In my area there are two universities, one community college, and a bunch of for profit colleges. Huge first year classes for the two universities and the community college. Enrolment definitely up. The university used to have a residence guarantee for all first year students, so that all incoming first years were guaranteed a bed in an on-campus residence now it's a lottery even for first years, so many had to find off campus housing. Haven't had that problem since the double cohort (for those not from Ontario, Ontario used to have grade 13/OAC only for students who wanted to go to university. When that ended, the last of the grade 13 and the first of the grade 12 university eligible students graduate in the same year, creating a double cohort of first year university students.)
Huge increases in the number of international students. Student housing in short supply. Rental prices insane.
This article from the CBC also applies where I am: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/international-student-housing-experience-give-me-shelter-1.6955994
With the diplomatic issues with India we may see fewer international students from there. Might help ease some of the student housing crisis, especially for international students. Very glad I'm not an undergrad trying to find housing. Was lucky to live in residence during my undergrad degree, something that wouldn't be possible now.
Quote from: FishProf on September 26, 2023, 08:09:00 AMWe had the 2nd largest freshman class ever at FishProfU. No plan was in place to deal with the huge influx, and no faculty hires, even VAP, are forthcoming.
Yeah, that'll work.
In the meantime, the Full-Court Press on retention is underway, and I am getting hostile emails from students demanding to know why they got a Non-Attendance warning to an online, asynchronous class (you haven't done anything, including the syllabus quiz). Fun.
Yikes.
Too bad you can't forward those emails from students to the retention folks.
Quote from: MarathonRunner on September 26, 2023, 06:32:03 PMQuote from: Parasaurolophus on September 25, 2023, 09:19:02 AMEnrollments are very high at the moment, but tensions with India may spell trouble for the winter or summer.
Yes, I guess we'll see how things play out. In my area there are two universities, one community college, and a bunch of for profit colleges. Huge first year classes for the two universities and the community college. Enrolment definitely up. The university used to have a residence guarantee for all first year students, so that all incoming first years were guaranteed a bed in an on-campus residence now it's a lottery even for first years, so many had to find off campus housing. Haven't had that problem since the double cohort (for those not from Ontario, Ontario used to have grade 13/OAC only for students who wanted to go to university. When that ended, the last of the grade 13 and the first of the grade 12 university eligible students graduate in the same year, creating a double cohort of first year university students.)
Huge increases in the number of international students. Student housing in short supply. Rental prices insane.
This article from the CBC also applies where I am: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/international-student-housing-experience-give-me-shelter-1.6955994
With the diplomatic issues with India we may see fewer international students from there. Might help ease some of the student housing crisis, especially for international students. Very glad I'm not an undergrad trying to find housing. Was lucky to live in residence during my undergrad degree, something that wouldn't be possible now.
Yeah... you can probably guess where I am. The housing situation is... very not good.
We got the numbers in a meeting today: enrollment is up by 1500 students from last year. We do not have the instructional space for all these students, though...
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on September 28, 2023, 02:57:19 PMWe got the numbers in a meeting today: enrollment is up by 1500 students from last year. We do not have the instructional space for all these students, though...
That is a problem you are lucky to have.
We are being told we "need to grow! XX,000 students by 20XX!". But we do not have the instructional space to teach the students we already have.
We need more instructional faculty, more classrooms, more teaching labs.
Our freshmen class is a bit smaller than expected, but still massive & mostly STEM-interested. We could handle a lot more if they wanted to be in the arts & humanities & social sciences.
The argument that students in different majors aren't fungible fell on deaf ears here. Now the consequences are falling on our department budgets.
Quote from: the_geneticist on October 03, 2023, 09:45:14 AMWe are being told we "need to grow! XX,000 students by 20XX!". But we do not have the instructional space to teach the students we already have.
We need more instructional faculty, more classrooms, more teaching labs.
Our freshmen class is a bit smaller than expected, but still massive & mostly STEM-interested. We could handle a lot more if they wanted to be in the arts & humanities & social sciences.
You have the unusual incentive to encourage your pre-meds to switch major to comp lit in order to balance resources with demand.
Quote from: Hibush on October 06, 2023, 09:09:15 PMQuote from: the_geneticist on October 03, 2023, 09:45:14 AMWe are being told we "need to grow! XX,000 students by 20XX!". But we do not have the instructional space to teach the students we already have.
We need more instructional faculty, more classrooms, more teaching labs.
Our freshmen class is a bit smaller than expected, but still massive & mostly STEM-interested. We could handle a lot more if they wanted to be in the arts & humanities & social sciences.
You have the unusual incentive to encourage your pre-meds to switch major to comp lit in order to balance resources with demand.
It was trendy a while ago to major in something other than STEM to "stand out" as a med school applicant. What they didn't tell the students is that you'd still have to take all of the chemistry. And it was still "a good idea" to take most of a bio major.
Quote from: the_geneticist on October 09, 2023, 10:36:50 AMQuote from: Hibush on October 06, 2023, 09:09:15 PMQuote from: the_geneticist on October 03, 2023, 09:45:14 AMWe are being told we "need to grow! XX,000 students by 20XX!". But we do not have the instructional space to teach the students we already have.
We need more instructional faculty, more classrooms, more teaching labs.
Our freshmen class is a bit smaller than expected, but still massive & mostly STEM-interested. We could handle a lot more if they wanted to be in the arts & humanities & social sciences.
You have the unusual incentive to encourage your pre-meds to switch major to comp lit in order to balance resources with demand.
It was trendy a while ago to major in something other than STEM to "stand out" as a med school applicant. What they didn't tell the students is that you'd still have to take all of the chemistry. And it was still "a good idea" to take most of a bio major.
I would say that it is still true to some degree. If the student gets A's on the pre-reqs, yet has some interesting non-biological major (math, physics, engineering; not just something non-stem like history or music), it does peak the interest of the admissions committee people. Certainly a violin major with a 4.0 in prereqs, and a good MCAT might be looked upon favorably compared the identical candidate (other than major) with a biology major-- as it would be increasing diversity of experience for the incoming class.
We're apparently up 1500 students, with 500 more expected next semester and an unknown intake in the summer.
But we literally do not have any classroom space left. Not a single room. In addition, we're projected to fall 50 sections short of demand next semester. That sounds good, save that it's all due to dodgy international recruitment practices. And, of course, apart from the fact that not being able to offer them any classes is a big problem, not least since they'll get deported after paying their fees and astronomical rent.
Reviving this thread to say that even though we've had record enrollment for Fall '23 (and look to have another one Fall '24), our summer enrollments have dropped to almost nil. Generally there've been demand for the soph-level gen-ed courses (and the occasional FY intro class for students who got behind). But now it looks like very few students, other than biomed/nursing majors looking to stay on track, are interested in taking courses for Summer '24. Anyone else notice this pattern?
Our summer enrollments were HUGE during the pandemic, and now they have gone down to Summer 2019 levels or even lower.
Why?
Students want online classes in Summer. The vast majority of our Summer classes were online during the lockdown. No need to pay for housing on/near campus, no paying to park, etc.
Now that we're back to in-person classes, the demand has gone down.
I've been seeing reports in the news that recent revisions to FAFSA have thrown a lot of applicants for a loop, to the point where it has been having an impact on the schools they're trying to apply to. Has anybody observed any of this?
Quote from: apl68 on February 28, 2024, 06:48:41 AMI've been seeing reports in the news that recent revisions to FAFSA have thrown a lot of applicants for a loop, to the point where it has been having an impact on the schools they're trying to apply to. Has anybody observed any of this?
Definitely at my institution, which serves a large number of PELL-eligible students. Our Admissions and Financial Aid teams have created a substitute form for the meantime to help potential students learn how much aid they could qualify for. The big worry is that potential students will decide not to apply to college this cycle.
Quote from: sinenomine on February 28, 2024, 07:24:08 AMQuote from: apl68 on February 28, 2024, 06:48:41 AMI've been seeing reports in the news that recent revisions to FAFSA have thrown a lot of applicants for a loop, to the point where it has been having an impact on the schools they're trying to apply to. Has anybody observed any of this?
Definitely at my institution, which serves a large number of PELL-eligible students. Our Admissions and Financial Aid teams have created a substitute form for the meantime to help potential students learn how much aid they could qualify for. The big worry is that potential students will decide not to apply to college this cycle.
At my place applications are way up, but acceptances and aid offers have been affected. We have a substitute form as well. Applicants are told approximately how much they would qualify for based on this form, pending FAFSA confirmation.