With about 3,400 incoming freshmen currently enrolled for the fall 2004 semester, Ball State's campus enrollment has decreased slightly compared with recent years, a university official said.
According to Ball State's "Enrollment Synopsis" from Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, 3,694 freshmen were enrolled at Ball State in fall 2003, with 3,751 enrolled in 2002 and 3,513 enrolled in 2001.
+â-è+â-è+â-è Larry Waters, dean of admissions and enrollment management, said while several prospective freshmen are still in the process of paying their deposits and will probably bring their enrollment count to 3,500 this week, campus enrollment overall is still lower than last year. +â-è+â-è+â-è
He said one possible reason for the slight decline is Ball State's recent emphasis on higher academic standards. It increased its standards in 1998 and tightened them in 1999 and 2000, he said.
Waters said when many qualified Ball State applicants meet such standards, they are often accepted by other good colleges and decide to enroll at those schools instead.
"So when your standards go up, your yield rate goes down," he said.
Waters said Ball State is not the only university experiencing a decline in its campus enrollment. Colleges throughout the country are similarly reporting a slight decrease this year in terms of the number of people who have applied and the number of admitted students who have paid their deposits, he said.
Doug McConkey, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said a primary reason for such a decline might be that students throughout the nation are simply applying to fewer schools than they have in the past.
+â-è+â-è+â-è"Instead of applying to five colleges they might be applying to four colleges," McConkey said. "There seems to be some sort of phenomenon that no one understands yet. We'll probably know more in four to five months."
+â-è+â-è+â-èWaters said while the number of incoming freshman has declined this year, the number of transfer students is steadily increasing. As of last week, 520 transfer students have already been admitted out of the 1,081 that applied this year. Waters said because most prospective transfer students will continue to apply throughout the rest of the spring and summer, the number who will be enrolled will probably surpass last year's total of 816.
McConkey said the number of graduate students who are applying this year is also increasing, though it is still too early to determine how many will actually enroll.
He said amid variations in the campus enrollment trends of incoming freshmen, transfer students and graduate students, several trends have remained the same throughout recent years. Men are continuing to constitute about 45 percent of the student population, while women are constituting 55 percent, he said.
In the same way, about 90 percent of enrolled first-year students are from Indiana, while only 10 percent come from out of state, primarily Ohio, Illinois and Michigan.
In addition, minorities are continuing to constitute 7 percent of the student population, he said. Waters said the reason ethnic diversity has not increased throughout recent years is that, while more than 10 percent of Ball State's admitted students are often minorities, not enough of them officially enroll for the fall semester.
He said to improve this, the university will continue to create strategies this summer that it can use in its recruitment process next year. McConkey said he is also hoping to use summer orientation and Welcome Week to encourage more incoming students to get involved in voluntary services, leadership development and residence hall activities on campus.
"Students who get involved tend to do better academically," McConkey said. "And they tend to have a better experience."
McConkey said by July or August, the university will have a better idea of the total number of students who will be enrolled for the fall 2004 semester. He said the official number will be released to the media after the second week of class.
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