Total enrollment:
2015 – 21,196
2014 – 20,655
2013 - 20,503
2012 - 21,053
2011- 22,147
2010 - 22,083
Editor's note: A previous version of this story reported a 6 percent increase in new Hoosier students. It also gave incorrect numbers for the number of new freshman. The story has since been updated.
Tighter admission standards and a push for higher-quality incoming classes led to a 3.2 percent drop in Ball State’s freshman enrollment this year.
The drop came despite a record number of applicants in 2015, said President Paul W. Ferguson.
“I think Ball State is really being perceived as an institution on the move and is offering some really opportunistic career-changing opportunities,” Ferguson said.
Although the university always tries to bring the “best and brightest” students, there has been a big push the last few years, said Chris Munchel, director of undergraduate admissions. Ferguson said admissions was able to draw out the best students to admit from that group. The average SAT score, 1,638, is up 53 points since 2012.
While freshman admission decreased, the university saw increases in all other areas. The total number of students at the university increased by 2.6 percent and the number of new students is up 6.3 percent.
Ferguson attributed part of the total enrollment increase to the quality of the university’s academic programs. He said as long as the university continues to build onto its academics, the number of students who apply will grow.
“[Enrollment is] an important part of our growth and development as an institution,” he said. “It helps our revenue and diversity.”
Along with total admission, graduate, undergraduate transfers and online enrollment have all increased this year.
“I think with that growth in online and graduate transfers, you’re building a diverse, broad-based university,” Ferguson said.
Ball State’s online program has been highly ranked by the U.S. News & World Report, the Online Learning Consortium and the Higher Learning Commission, which draws more students to the program, Ferguson said.
“We’re in a very good place now … with getting more of this wonderful, talented student base,” he said. “We have to figure out how to get more of this kind of student base."
Ferguson takes pride in the Hoosier-bred niche Ball State has created with its students. This year, 84 percent of students were from Indiana, Munchel said. That rate is higher than at both Indiana University and Purdue University.
“I think Ball State has created a wonderful niche, and we provide hands-on experiences with the resources of a larger institution, but still have that small school atmosphere in terms of personalization students can get on campus,” Munchel said.
To focus solely on enrollment, retention and graduation techniques, the university has split up the division of enrollment services from the division of strategic communications, said Julie Hopwood, interim vice president for strategic communications and senior adviser to the president.
“The idea is that, as we go through the reorganizations, we can really closely examine how we improve the institution as a whole,” Hopwood said.
Enrollment used to be only undergraduate, but now with the reorganization, Hopwood said they are working with reps from graduate school, online, distance education and with college deans. She said this will help to centralize enrollment and make their strategies for attracting the best students even better.
Once they have the high-quality students, the next big challenge will be keeping them at the university, which Ferguson said will ideally be done with the university’s academic programs and extra curricular activities.
“We need to make sure the broad experience is very visible and continue to enjoy the attraction of academically high-achieving students,” Ferguson said.
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