Ball State’s incoming freshman class is one of the “strongest” in school history, as one of the largest classes with the highest average SAT score and high school GPA.
Tom Taylor, vice president of Enrollment, Marketing, and Communications, said 3,673 students make up the class of incoming freshmen, up 51 students from last year’s incoming class.
“[The number of applicants was] a little ahead of last year,” Taylor said. “[It was the] largest or second largest number of applicants ever — a very strong applicant pool. We’ve been trying each year to make minor increases in admission standards and the profile of students.”
The average high school GPA of the incoming freshman is 3.42, up from 3.35 for last year’s incoming class. Comparatively, the average SAT score increased 25 points, from 1582 to 1607.
Although the incoming freshman class is slightly larger, residence halls are seeing similar numbers to years past.
Alan Hargrave, director of Housing and Residence Life, said residence halls are at 92 percent capacity, per usual. University apartments are at 95 percent capacity.
The dorm capacity remained the same because the incoming class of 2012 was smaller than this year’s class and smaller numbers returning to the dorms accommodated larger numbers coming in.
Hargrave said the stress on resources in residence halls is no more than usual and no extra preparation was needed over the summer.
“I think we are well-sized to handle everything,” he said.
There was no change in the number of residence hall directors, or resident assistants.
Hargrave said the current residence space can accommodate more growth.
“We have room for more students,” he said. “[As to] long term plans for the campus, the master plan committee works, and certainly there will be discussion of residential needs in the long term.”
Students may have faced long lines and crowded dining rooms during the first week of classes, but Jon Lewis, director of Dining, said those are struggles they face at the beginning of every year.
Dining will continue to hire students and part-time faculty through the first few weeks.
“The whole opening week is difficult for us,” Lewis said. “We try to do the best we can with the staff we have, as we get up to full staffing levels. It does get challenging.”
Lewis said the dining halls can accommodate the larger class of freshmen without a problem, but it takes the first few weeks to reach full staffing levels and for students to settle into their routines.
“It’s always congested the first week until people can figure out what their habits are and when they eat,” he said. “Maybe most of them will decide eating at noon is not the best option.”
Taylor said the size of the current freshman class will change as some students leave during the year, or do not return for future years.”
The current strategic plan aims to reach an 85 percent retention rate, and Taylor said the retention rate of the incoming class of 2012 from freshmen to sophomores was 79 percent.
“We are very close [to target retention rate] this year,” Taylor said. “Retention is one of those challenging concepts because [when] people hear that, they think 21 percent flunked out. It’s just that they didn’t return for whatever reason, like family reasons and personal choice.”
