Post-Pandemic Enrollment Bumps?

[apl68]

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is looking at a record freshman class for this year.  They have so many freshmen that they are having to make arrangements for about 900 to live off-campus.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The freshmen are coming.


So many, in fact, that on-campus beds at the University of Arkansas are full and about 900 college students will have to sleep off-campus at nearby complexes this fall semester.

Move-in day for students is Aug. 13. Enrollment is expected to top 30,000 students, said Laura Jacobs, chief of staff at the chancellor's office. The increase in enrollment is driven largely by an influx of first-time students, she said. Jacobs spoke Monday to the city's Town and Gown Committee, an advisory panel of city and university staff, students and residents.

The university will release official enrollment numbers after classes start.

The university expects about 7,000 freshmen this fall, Jacobs said. Freshman enrollment in fall 2021 was 6,064.

Total enrollment in fall 2021 was 29,068. The university's enrollment is growing, bucking the trend nationally, Jacobs said.

"This is certainly an anomaly right now in higher education. A lot of our peers in the state and across the country are declining in enrollment or staying flat. Flat is the new growth," Jacobs said. "We feel very fortunate to be in this kind of position where we're growing."

More at:


https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2022/jul/31/freshmen-class-ushering-need-for-off-campus-beds/


The best suggestion anybody could make for the sudden growth in numbers was the idea that students who had deferred attending college during COVID are now trying to make up for lost time.  I wonder whether other schools are seeing this?

[Ruralguy]

We have significantly higher, though not overwhelmingly higher, enrollment than the previous several academic years (including before COVID a bit),

[mythbuster]

Not sure yet about enrollment, but we do have a waitlist of 300+ for on campus housing. We are a commuter campus, so this says a lot about what has happened to rents in the last year.

[Liquidambar]

We have record enrollments this fall, but that's because our administration decided to relax standards and admit more students.  More students = more money.  (Never mind that these students will need dorms to live in, classrooms to learn in, and professors to teach them.  Somehow those are supposed to be free?)

[quasihumanist]

We have record enrollments this fall, but that's because our administration decided to relax standards and admit more students.  More students = more money.  (Never mind that these students will need dorms to live in, classrooms to learn in, and professors to teach them.  Somehow those are supposed to be free?)

Dorms aren't free, but you let a few more students get their Cs without setting foot in classrooms very often, talking to their professors, or submitting much work to be graded, and it's easy to accommodate more students without additional costs.

[Liquidambar]

We have record enrollments this fall, but that's because our administration decided to relax standards and admit more students.  More students = more money.  (Never mind that these students will need dorms to live in, classrooms to learn in, and professors to teach them.  Somehow those are supposed to be free?)

Dorms aren't free, but you let a few more students get their Cs without setting foot in classrooms very often, talking to their professors, or submitting much work to be graded, and it's easy to accommodate more students without additional costs.

Maybe.  It's not a popular decision with our faculty, though.  We have a shortage of medium-sized classrooms, which limits how much class sizes can be raised.  And our niche is to be moderately selective, so when our acceptance rate goes up, we then have to increase the applicant pool so the acceptance rate won't be embarrassing.

Regarding faculty time, fortunately there isn't much expectation that we chase down lazy students who are in good health.  However, admin seems to want us to bend over backwards to accommodate students who miss a lot of class due to physical or mental health issues.  I hope the extra students won't be in that category.

[kaysixteen]

Dear Alma Mater, which had done a remarkable job in attaining a freshman class of c. 540 students since about thirty years ago (it was c. 510 throughout my time there in the 80s), suddenly finds itself with 600 students having sent in their deposits to enroll this fall.   Some of this may well be due to the elite nature of the school, or due to the school's recent decisions first to eliminate student loans as a part of financial aid packages, then to eliminate the need for aid students to earn money in the summer (so they could potentially take unpaid internships), and then also to eliminate school year on campus work reqs, but some of this is probably not all of this.   We will see what they do with all these kids.

[Kron3007]

We have a record class coming in this year.  They have added more beds to residence where possible, and still don't have enough space for them all.  This is probably good since we also have some budget issues, but is causing a lot of complaints from students who expected housing and are now stuck in limbo.

[sinenomine]

Our on-ground division is doing very well, but the online undergrad and grad divisions have lower enrollments than forecasted.

[AmLitHist]

At my CC, they've upped the caps on classes in some departments. Our F2F classes are still lagging in enrollment, but the online offerings are full and they're adding sections.

[Hibush]

The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is looking at a record freshman class for this year.  They have so many freshmen that they are having to make arrangements for about 900 to live off-campus.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The freshmen are coming.


So many, in fact, that on-campus beds at the University of Arkansas are full and about 900 college students will have to sleep off-campus at nearby complexes this fall semester.

"This is certainly an anomaly right now in higher education. A lot of our peers in the state and across the country are declining in enrollment or staying flat. Flat is the new growth," Jacobs said. "We feel very fortunate to be in this kind of position where we're growing."

I understand that part of this is the general trend of large flagships growing, and small regionals declining. Jacob's alludes to that. We've discussed the fate of Henderson as an example of the smaller getting in trouble, but there are a lot of small schools in Arkansas that could collectively be a big oversupply for the state as a whole.