Fall 2023 Enrollments

[Wahoo Redux]

We 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.

[bio-nonymous]

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...

[FishProf]

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.

[MarathonRunner]

Enrollments 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.

[the_geneticist]

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.

Yikes.
Too bad you can't forward those emails from students to the retention folks.

[Parasaurolophus]

Enrollments 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...

[Wahoo Redux]

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...

That is a problem you are lucky to have.

[the_geneticist]

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. 

[FishProf]

The argument that students in different majors aren't fungible fell on deaf ears here.  Now the consequences are falling on our department budgets.

[Hibush]

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. 

You have the unusual incentive to encourage your pre-meds to switch major to comp lit in order to balance resources with demand.

[the_geneticist]

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. 

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.

[bio-nonymous]

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. 

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.

[Parasaurolophus]

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.

[RatGuy]

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?

[the_geneticist]

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.