Leatherneck Nation

Not that I did it this way back in my day, but if I was to give advice to a high school student looking for a college today, assuming they had a good idea what they wanted to go into, I would tell them to look for schools which are strong in that particular program. Ignore overall enrollment numbers and concentrate only on the enrollment numbers for that particular program. Hopefully, those would be available from somewhere, maybe not Google. If you are part and parcel of a program which is trending upward, your chances of success will be much better. In summary, we really need the enrollment figures for our signature programs to properly gauge where we are at the present time. Or, we need to reevaluate what our signature programs are.

Enrollment down more than reported.

http://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/270362

vatusay wrote:Enrollment down more than reported.

http://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/270362

I am going to reserve any and all judgment until the Western Courier weighs in on the matter.

Aaaaaand they clean up their own mess. Some good reporting.

I am curious to see the TOTAL freshman numbers.

http://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/270362

vatusay wrote:Aaaaaand they clean up their own mess. Some good reporting.

I am curious to see the TOTAL freshman numbers.

http://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/270362

A good reporter would always ask that "What did they count and when did they count it?" question. I am still a bit confused. If someone starts taking classes in the summer, are they in the New Freshman headcount?

vatusay wrote:Aaaaaand they clean up their own mess. Some good reporting.

I am curious to see the TOTAL freshman numbers.

http://macombnewsnow.com/macomb-news/270362

Do you mean new freshmen enrollment...or new freshmen + any existing students that are still classified as freshmen?
They did already publish the new freshmen enrollment (1,527 this year vs 1,535 last year) and the FR->SO retention rate (69.2% this year vs 67.7% last year).

You'll be able to find the full details once the documents are put together and posted here: http://wiu.edu/IRP/enrollments/
2016 isn't up yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I see it.

For reference, our total freshmen enrollment in 2014 was 2,382 and in 2015 was 2,329 (2.2% decrease). You can see those numbers here: http://wiu.edu/IRP/enrollments/2016/fall/hc.php

Seal - the new freshmen number includes new freshmen who start in spring or fall as well. Count is as of the 10th day of classes...which is the "standard" by which all the public universities go by.

I think I can get those other numbers (total freshmen) in just a bit.

Having worked at three colleges, including admissions, enrollment numbers can include a lot of magic, confusion, various ways to count, spin, and usually a lot of creativity. I believe it's safe to say that enrollment is likely down somewhat, but not as bad as originally feared. I feel enrollment services and college in general has done a good job- considering what the environment is. Attracting students is everyone's job at a school- from grounds crew to admissions to instructors to staff.

I would be concerned with the drop in the Quad Cities too. A lot invested there.

A good reporter would always ask that "What did they count and when did they count it?" question. I am still a bit confused. If someone starts taking classes in the summer, are they in the New Freshman headcount?

A "good reporter" would have called WIU and asked for a clarification of the numbers prior to reporting.

Ok, so here's some more numbers for you guys:

Total Freshmen Enrollment (that's new freshmen and existing students that are still classified as "freshmen" based on semester hours completed).
2015 - 2,329
2016 - 2,126
Decrease of 8.7% (203 students)

Some of that drop can be explained by a higher number of students reaching the "sophomore" classification.
Total Sophomore Enrollment
2015 - 1,455
2016 - 1,566
Increase of 7.6% (111 students)

Which is why the university also presents numbers for "Total Lower Division"...as in, the total Freshmen and Sophomores.
Total Lower Division
2015 - 3,784
2016 - 3,692
Decrease of 2.4% (92 students)

ST_Lawson wrote: The administration isn't naive to the situation.

Maybe not now, but what about the last 10 years when WIU's enrollment has continually declined?

Sorry, but I was working in the data crunching areas of WIU during that time and far too often watched as the administration chose to ignore the negative trends and sought out a statistic that looked good. It definitely felt like avoidance of the problem, far more so than a positive spin on a problem.