Posted February 4, 200817 yr Colleges seeing huge leap in applications Yet to come is the class of 2009 which consists of 3.2 million students nationwide. By Stephanie Gottschlich Staff Writer Monday, February 04, 2008 DAYTON — Applications for freshman admission this fall to four-year colleges and universities in Southwest Ohio are reaching new heights, raising the potential for wait lists and high rejection rates. Seven local institutions are seeing double-digit increases in college applications compared with the same time last year, outpacing the national average increase of 6 percent. At Wittenberg University, University of Dayton, Wright State University and University of Cincinnati, applications are up more than 20 percent compared with the same time last year. Applications to Central State University, which is aggressively trying to triple enrollment in the next 10 years, have nearly doubled. One small private institution, Urbana University, is seeing applications more than double. Read More...
February 4, 200817 yr The boom is also extending to traditional 2-yr campuses in some cases. Miami U -Hamilton has seen a 7% overall increase in the past year (from what I've heard). Miami U - Middletown has not seen that boost. MU-Hamiliton will begin offering a 4 year degree either next year or the following year, so the lines are increasingly being blurred. Part of the increase is due to the expansion of online teaching, either 100% online or 25% online as in many cases. Also contributing is the number of classes offered on Saturdays and Friday evenings. That has been a big driver in the increase in non-traditional students. Miami U - Oxford still prides itself on catering to the traditional students (18-22 year olds) and has consistantly refused to expand online teaching in any way (it helps their case that they are georaphically isolated and have no community of corporate workers available to teach) . Notice that Miami U - Oxford was not listed as one of the colleges seeing a large increase in applications. Do you think there is any connection?
February 23, 200817 yr I'm in the class of '09 and we are the SMALLEST class at my school. The class of '08 has 250 kids in it and the class of '10 has like, 315... my class only has 170. Those statistics suprise me. But I will agree with some of those comments, applying for colleges is a lot easier than what it was for my sisters, '03 and '05.
February 23, 200817 yr Notice that Miami U - Oxford was not listed as one of the colleges seeing a large increase in applications. Do you think there is any connection? ^Absolutely, along with a lot of other reasons why Miami isn't seen as a wise investment compared to its competitors. Alrighty now, lets not get excited. We don't have Miami's data for this year, so the point is mute until we have the numbers. Secondly, last year's incoming freshman class was the largest in Miami's history, so if applications were down, you'd need to compare data from a couple years back to confirm a trend. As far as a wise investment, could you elaborate? In 2008, Kiplinger's annual list of the "100 Best Values in Public Colleges" ranks Miami University as the top bargain in Ohio and 31st nationally.
February 23, 200817 yr The University of Cincinnati has not only been setting records for enrollment but also the percentage of those living on campus (last year's Freshman class = 75%), total number of National Merit Scholars, and overall SAT/ACT scores. In a nutshell, UC is raising standards while increasing enrollment and creating a more dynamic campus life...these are things that should get more publicity. The Board of Trustees, President Nancy Zimpfer, and the UC Foundation/Alumni Center should truly be commended.
February 23, 200817 yr All this is easily explained by the sharp rise in birthrates from 1980 to 1990. After the introduuction of birth control pills and the legalization of abortion, the number of births fell from 4+ million annually to 3.1 through the mid-1970's. But births rose steadily through the 1980's and again surpassed 4 million in 1989, exactly 18 years ago. Add to that all the women attending college that didn't 30 years ago and there's the answer. Randy I'd bet Nancy didn't bother mentioning that inconvenient domographic truth in her emails to students and little blurbs at the front of the alumni magazine.
February 23, 200817 yr They do (a little). The college acknowledges that they are benefiting from the Baby Boom echo, though they would argue they are grabbing a bigger portion of that than they had before and they are higher quality, which is probably true. This demographic bump should be with us for awhile, though the location of those kids is not evenly distributed across the country. Obviously the shrinking size of most big city public schools systems and the Catholic school systems in those places tell us where they aren't. Unfortunately, the metastasizing Lakota district says where they are.
February 24, 200817 yr Notice that Miami U - Oxford was not listed as one of the colleges seeing a large increase in applications. Do you think there is any connection? ^Absolutely, along with a lot of other reasons why Miami isn't seen as a wise investment compared to its competitors. Alrighty now, lets not get excited. We don't have Miami's data for this year, so the point is mute until we have the numbers. Secondly, last year's incoming freshman class was the largest in Miami's history, so if applications were down, you'd need to compare data from a couple years back to confirm a trend. As far as a wise investment, could you elaborate? In 2008, Kiplinger's annual list of the "100 Best Values in Public Colleges" ranks Miami University as the top bargain in Ohio and 31st nationally. Kiplinger's might be have data that justifies Miami being a bargain, but that isn't translating into enrollment numbers. I like Miami and don't want my previous post to characterize me as a Miami hater...of which there are many. Will you please stop speaking about enrollment when we don't have data on Miami? You are a Miami hater. You've made it clear and can't take it back. And that's OK. I'm not her biggest fan either at times, but I care enough that I don't want to hear negative comments that are not rooted in accuracy or are not obviously opinion. Also, tell me a school that doesn't have plenty of haters.
February 24, 200817 yr :? sorry, no offense. I'm a bear of very little brain. By saying there were many of Miami haters, I was in no way saying the hating was warranted or that Miami had more haters than any other university.
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