UC Begins Classes On Sept. 19 With Booming Enrollment and Record Freshman Class

UC is projecting a total enrollment of around 36,500 students as classes get underway on Sept. 19. That’s the largest number of students in 16 years and nearly 1,000 students over last year’s total enrollment of 35,527. The crowds mark the largest one-year increase in overall enrollment since 1979.

A record freshman class for the Uptown Campus, increasing numbers of transfer students and higher retention rates all play a role in those swelling crowds.

The projected 2007 class of 4,150 freshmen for the Uptown Campus is also a record, and there are record indicators of how well they’re prepared for college, a result of admissions standards aimed at improving retention and graduation rates as goals of the UC|21 Strategic Plan. The incoming freshmen hold the highest average ACT score of any incoming freshman class (24.2) and hold the most Cincinnatus Scholarships (1,247) ever awarded to academically qualified freshmen. Because of the skyrocketing applications of incoming freshmen, for the first time this summer, UC wait-listed students who had been accepted to the university but who had not confirmed their admission.

Caroline Miller, associate vice president for Enrollment Management, says once students and parents visit the campus, they know UC is the place to be. Campus tours were up more than 50 percent from the previous year. UC’s marketing campaign is spreading the word about the hometown university with a worldwide impact. Miller adds that raising the bar on admissions standards reinforced the high-quality programs that attract students to UC, including research opportunities for undergraduates and co-op, which was founded at the University of Cincinnati.

The crowds also indicate that more students at UC are staying in college. Retention rates have increased from 77 percent in 2003 to 82 percent in 2007. UC’s graduation rate has increased to 52 percent from 49 percent in 2003.

“UC’s heightened retention rates result from sustained, multi-pronged efforts and initiatives to better support and serve undergraduate students,” says Anthony J. Perzigian, senior vice president and provost for baccalaureate and graduate education. Over the past decade, he says the Success Challenge Funding from the Ohio Board of Regents – an initiative to help Ohio’s at-risk students successfully achieve their undergraduate degree and to earn that degree in a timely manner – is one factor in UC’s retention success.

In addition, the UC’s Collegiate Stuctures Initiative, a restructuring of academic programs to build on student success, as well as UC|21 strategies, “spurred important developments including the First-Year Experience/Learning Communities program, the Center for Access and Transition, which provides tutoring, advising and coursework preparation for students who fell short of entrance requirements for UC’s baccalaureate colleges, and the Center for Exploratory Studies, which supports undecided students as they select a major. More robust central and college-based advising systems, more effective orientation and learning assistance programs and improved placement testing ensure a great start for more students whose promise for success only increases as admission standards have increased,” says Perzigian.

In another effort aimed at boosting retention, UC sophomores this year will have the opportunity to gain support for their academic efforts through the Cincinnati Sophomore Initiative. This program – begun last spring and the first of its kind at one of Ohio’s public, urban universities – seeks to help keep sophomores on track academically during a time period when they are at the greatest risk for washing out of college or falling severely off track.

More students are transferring to UC as students seek opportunities to transform their associate’s degree into a bachelor’s degree. UC awarded 92 new UC|Pathways Scholarships to students from Cincinnati State College, Sinclair College, Raymond Walters College and Clermont College as part of the UC|21 commitment to provide pathways to success and better serve the needs of transfer students. The university expects to enroll around 1,400 transfer students this year, an increase of 51 transfers from last year.

Nearly 80 percent of this year’s entering students completed their applications over the Web. For the first time ever, UC’s 2008 Viewbook – which is primarily distributed to students interested in entering UC next fall – will not have a paper application, because more and more freshmen are applying online. Students wishing to complete a paper application can still do so by contacting the UC Office of Admissions. UC opened the application window for fall 2008 on August 1. Applications must be received by Dec. 15, 2007, for scholarship consideration.

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