Enrollment up again

[89rabbit]

Another year another enrollment record. Here are highlights from an Aberdeen American News Story:

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aber...s/12815555.htm

Regents head says state must keep college enrollment up

Associated Press

CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. - South Dakota's college enrollment is reaching an all-time high, but officials need to expand the pipeline of students from state school districts to keep those numbers up, the executive director of the Board of Regents said Monday. . . .

South Dakota State's enrollment, released by the university on Tuesday, shows 11,021 students attending for the fall semester. University officials said it marks the sixth year of significant enrollment increases. . . .


Go State! ;D

[filbert]

Re: Enrollment up again

From the article:

South Dakota could also increase transfer agreements with technical institutes, and it is currently dropping tuition rates to neighboring states like Nebraska and Iowa, Perry said.

"It's almost cheaper for those students to attend school in South Dakota than to stay home," he said.
. . .
He said the state's schools should also double their doctoral programs to increase South Dakota's profile in research and development. South Dakota has 13 such programs in the science and technology fields, compared to 44 in North Dakota and more than 30 in Wyoming.

"We are a long way from being competitive," Perry said.

The right direction, and the right direction. SDSU should be well-placed to offer additional science/technology PhD's--after all, that's what a land grant is supposed to do. And lowered tuition for Iowa and Nebraska students makes scholarships for those folks less expensive.

Good, good, good.

[OK_Jackrabbit]

Re: Enrollment up again

Here's some context you don't get in the media reports. I honestly don't believe they understand these numbers very well:

Head count is the total number of human beings taking classes (even one) at a university. SDSU is 11,021 and USD is 8,641. The difference in head count is 2,380.

The number of full-time-equivalents gives you a better picture of what's going on at these universities. Head count includes everyone who's taking even one class. FTE parses those numbers to give you an idea of how many credit hours are being taught and, generally, how much educating is going on at a university. Roughly-speaking, total credit hours divided by 15 (considered a full load) gives you the FTE (it's more complex than that, but in general, that's true).

SDSU's FTE is 9,263. USD's FTE is 6,525, a difference of 2,738 (greater than the head count difference). Generally, that means SDSU's head count includes more full-time and nearly full-time students than USD's head count does. USD has made some nice gains this year, but the head count number skews the picture a bit. The FTE gives you a better idea of what's going on.

The media, of course, doesn't do that kind of nuance very well. By the way, most projections suggest that a dip in enrollment is on its way. I'm not plugged into the administration at SDSU, but I suspect that holding steady in the next few years would be their goal.

[Jacks99]

Re: Enrollment up again

By the way, most projections suggest that a dip in enrollment is on its way. I'm not plugged into the administration at SDSU, but I suspect that holding steady in the next few years would be their goal.

That projection doesn't surprise me. As long as the trend of the nation as a whole is dipping I would be ok with that plan.

Thanks for the clarification on the enrollment numbers OK, good stuff.