Enrollment

[GeauxSioux]

A story of enrollment growth, not just at UND or NDSU, but across North Dakota, South Dakota and western Minnesota.

COVER STORY: Enrollment Growth

Like a growing number of colleges across the country, Dakota State University

[GeauxSioux]

UND, NDSU break enrollment records

The first day fall enrollment count for UND and North Dakota State University broke re-cords again, the universities said today.

UND, with 13,431 students, saw a 6.9 percent increase over last fall. Much of the growth came was from the freshman class, whose numbers were up 6 percent

.

[star2city]

UND, NDSU break enrollment records.

To only be up 2% with a 12% grad enrollment increase and a relatively small senior class, NDSU's freshman class must have dropped rather substantially. Without all the tuition waivers Chapman was granting, freshman are not as inclined to enroll there. Since the sophomore and junior classes at NDSU are huge, once those two classes begin graduating, NDSU enrollment will likely decline temporarily.

[NDSU grad]

To only be up 2% with a 12% grad enrollment increase and a relatively small senior class, NDSU's freshman class must have dropped rather substantially. Without all the tuition waivers Chapman was granting, freshman are not as inclined to enroll there. Since the sophomore and junior classes at NDSU are huge, once those two classes begin graduating, NDSU enrollment will likely decline temporarily.

LOL. Most of the tuition waivers were granted to grad students.

[Hammersmith]

To only be up 2% with a 12% grad enrollment increase and a relatively small senior class, NDSU's freshman class must have dropped rather substantially. Without all the tuition waivers Chapman was granting, freshman are not as inclined to enroll there. Since the sophomore and junior classes at NDSU are huge, once those two classes begin graduating, NDSU enrollment will likely decline temporarily.

Never rely on Forum Communications for correct facts. The article in the Forum was corrected once already(and it's only 4 sentences long), and the Herald article is still incorrect. The 12% increase is in international students, not grad students. The number of undergrads increased by 305, and grad students decreased by 40. I don't have my compiled info handy, but this year's freshman class of 2,410 would put it as the 2nd to 4th largest freshmen class in NDSU history. Other than the freak class of 2008(~2,600), the 2007, 2009, & 2010 classes have all been around 2,400. Of course, the real numbers don't come out for another 4 weeks. I suspect the grad numbers will reverse then; they always seem to surge in the first few weeks of class.

[GeauxSioux]

North Dakota Research Universities: Enrollment up

UND’s first day enrollment is 13,431, an increase of 865 over last year’s initial day tally of 12,566. Already UND has posted a record enrollment, up 259 over last year’s final number of 13,172 and the previous record of 13,187 in 2004.

UND showed good growth across the board. The UND Graduate School showed the best growth with 2,400 students, up 15 percent over last year’s tally of 2,093. UND has 2,925 new undergraduate students. New freshmen numbers are up 6 percent, 2,113 compared to 1,995. Transfer students are up 9 percent, 812 compared to 745. UND also showed a 2 percent increase in professional students (medicine and law), 496 compared to 487. And the number of returning undergraduate students is up 5 percent, 7,610 compared to 7,246.

It'll be interesting to see where UND's final numbers end up, since the first day totals are already higher than last year's final numbers.

[GeauxSioux]

14,194!! What a jump.

UND sets enrollment record

The total is up 1,022 students, or 7.8 percent, from last year's final count of 13,172.

[ticklethetwine]

14,194!! What a jump.

UND sets enrollment record

Our online enrollment really has taken off. Unlike some campuses across the country we welcome with open arms any service member and those who are serving numbers have also grown.

[UND Fan]

14,194!! What a jump.

UND sets enrollment record

That is amazing - I wonder if this level of growth was expected. From an athletic point-fo-view, higher enrollment means more $ for the athletic department. This certainly is welcome during the transition.

[GeauxSioux]

Our online enrollment really has taken off. Unlike some campuses across the country we welcome with open arms any service member and those who are serving numbers have also grown.

It wasn't too many years ago that online enrollment was mocked and now it is everywhere. I read an article not long ago that UC Berkley was now starting online classes. They saw that they were being left out of the new wave of education.

[fighting sue]

Our online enrollment really has taken off. Unlike some campuses across the country we welcome with open arms any service member and those who are serving numbers have also grown.

Does anyone have any more specific info regarding the online numbers? I didn't see any note of them in the "enrollment statistics" section on UND's page. I've heard this is UND's most significant growth area, but I'd be curious exactly what UND's online enrollment numbers are. I know online students are real students taking real classes, but campus certainly doesn't feel different or more crowded than in years past.

[ticklethetwine]

Does anyone have any more specific info regarding the online numbers? I didn't see any note of them in the "enrollment statistics" section on UND's page. I've heard this is UND's most significant growth area, but I'd be curious exactly what UND's online enrollment numbers are. I know online students are real students taking real classes, but campus certainly doesn't feel different or more crowded than in years past.

Once the numbers are made public(und community) I will try post them here for interested parties.

[GeauxSioux]

[url=http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/291968/group/homepage/]

UND

[homer]

Does anyone have any more specific info regarding the online numbers? I didn't see any note of them in the "enrollment statistics" section on UND's page. I've heard this is UND's most significant growth area, but I'd be curious exactly what UND's online enrollment numbers are. I know online students are real students taking real classes, but campus certainly doesn't feel different or more crowded than in years past.

Tell that to any campus employee and they would laugh. Its definately much busier around campus and the help is definately taking notice. They will also tell you its a nice problem to have though.

[WYOBISONMAN]

I suspect the recession is driving some of the increases that all the schools are seeing.

[GeauxSioux]

[url=http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/176676/]OUR OPINION: Effort, planning grew UND

[MplsBison]

OUR OPINION: Effort, planning grew UND's enrollment

IMO, the answer is no. NDSU and UND are more than aptly serving the mission of educating those ND high school students that want a 4 year or advanced degree. At this point, further expansion of undergraduate enrollment serves only to use ND tax dollars to educate more students from Minn, Wisc. and other state's students from the student exchange programs.

It's not particularly helpful as those students just return to their home states anyway.

The much better purpose, IMO, is the expansion of the graduate programs and research activities, including partnerships with private companies in ND to conduct research and spin-off companies from research projects. That's the biggest benefit by far to the state. Undergrad students just help pay the bills.I'd rather see the state kick in more dollars than force the schools to expand undergrad size in order to fund research growth.

[darell1976]

UND should continue to grow. There is a lot of land that can house new buildings for both classrooms and living quarters too, unlike NDSU which its space is limited in North Fargo therefore making classrooms downtown. So I would say as long as people are able to fork over the tuition they should not be denied education at UND or NDSU due to capacity.

[Bill Kiefer]

Online course work, interactive video technology, and improved mass transit will all serve higher education in untold and unknown ways as we explore new and innovative ways of delivering knowledge in the future!!!

[Hammersmith]

UND should continue to grow. There is a lot of land that can house new buildings for both classrooms and living quarters too, unlike NDSU which its space is limited in North Fargo therefore making classrooms downtown. So I would say as long as people are able to fork over the tuition they should not be denied education at UND or NDSU due to capacity.

Just to be clear, lack of room is not the reason behind the downtown campus. Money drove it more than anything. With several vacant office buildings downtown, it was cheaper to buy and renovate than to build new on campus. Also, the first downtown building was the old Northern School Supply that was purchased and renovated by Doug Burgam at little to no cost to NDSU. It's hard to turn that down when the art department needed new digs for over 30 years. When you factor in the economic benefits of 3000 students living, working and eating downtown, it really was a no-brainer to expand the downtown campus rather than stretch out the main campus to the west. In the next decade(maybe faster depending on what Monday's announcement contains), several buildings will be added to the main campus including a large classroom building, a large lab building, and a new undergrad library. There are already spots selected for all three buildings. With that construction, NDSU will be able to go beyond the current 16,000 maximum capacity. Whether we do go beyond it is another question entirely.

[darell1976]

Just to be clear, lack of room is not the reason behind the downtown campus. Money drove it more than anything. With several vacant office buildings downtown, it was cheaper to buy and renovate than to build new on campus. Also, the first downtown building was the old Northern School Supply that was purchased and renovated by Doug Burgam at little to no cost to NDSU. It's hard to turn that down when the art department needed new digs for over 30 years. When you factor in the economic benefits of 3000 students living, working and eating downtown, it really was a no-brainer to expand the downtown campus rather than stretch out the main campus to the west. In the next decade(maybe faster depending on what Monday's announcement contains), several buildings will be added to the main campus including a large classroom building, a large lab building, and a new undergrad library. There are already spots selected for all three buildings. With that construction, NDSU will be able to go beyond the current 16,000 maximum capacity. Whether we do go beyond it is another question entirely.

Do you know where these spots are? I know there are new buildings going up on 18th St on the west side of the campus, I was just saying there isn't too much more spots around the campus with open land and no buildings on it, they added a lot of new apartments by Stop N Go, and Mc Donalds by the dome seems like that campus is growing and growing to its capacity. I only live about 12 blocks from the campus and it has grown since I moved to Fargo 11 years ago.

[Big A HG]

At this point, further expansion of undergraduate enrollment serves only to use ND tax dollars to educate more students from Minn, Wisc. and other state's students from the student exchange programs.

It's not particularly helpful as those students just return to their home states anyway.

I actually agree with most of what you wrote that I ultimately deleted, but wanted to point at that what I left in the quotes there isn't entirely true. Sure, most students don't stay in North Dakota who are from other places, but I am one of multiple examples that prove your comment wrong. I'm from Wisconsin, went to school at UND (obviously), but have a job lined up in North Dakota once I get cleared to do so.

You have to realize that there are a ton of North Dakota kids who have lived there their whole lives that go to school at UND or NDSU, but end up leaving the state as well. It's just the way things are in NoDak.

[Hammersmith]

Do you know where these spots are? I know there are new buildings going up on 18th St on the west side of the campus, I was just saying there isn't too much more spots around the campus with open land and no buildings on it, they added a lot of new apartments by Stop N Go, and Mc Donalds by the dome seems like that campus is growing and growing to its capacity. I only live about 12 blocks from the campus and it has grown since I moved to Fargo 11 years ago.

I believe the classroom building is slated for the open spot just south of the pay lot(next to the engineering complex and kiddie-corner from the IACC). I think the lab building will either go next to Sheppard Arena or in its place(after it's torn down). The library is set to go just west of the IACC where the campus police station is(that whole corner). I also believe most of University Village will eventually be torn down and replaced with higher density apartment buildings like the new ones that just went up. There is also space near the new dorms(LLCs) to build two more if needed. Much of the next wave of construction will actually involve the re-use of spaces. There are a lot of buildings on campus that are really wastes of valuable real estate. Many of those are targeted for demo and rebuild as money becomes available. One last thing: It's in the long-term plan to add on to many of the current buildings to reduce the width of the thoroughfares. This is mainly to shield the paths from the wind, as well as maximizing usage of the space.

[MplsBison]

I actually agree with most of what you wrote that I ultimately deleted, but wanted to point at that what I left in the quotes there isn't entirely true. Sure, most students don't stay in North Dakota who are from other places, but I am one of multiple examples that prove your comment wrong. I'm from Wisconsin, went to school at UND (obviously), but have a job lined up in North Dakota once I get cleared to do so.

You have to realize that there are a ton of North Dakota kids who have lived there their whole lives that go to school at UND or NDSU, but end up leaving the state as well. It's just the way things are in NoDak.

Sure. But you're the exception.

Bringing in 10k additional high school kids a year from Minn, Wisc and other exchange states is not going to result in 10k new ND residents a year. Even 1% of that would be great but probably not reality.

New research projects and the spin-off companies that come from those projects are the best thing the state can get from the schools. My $0.02

[Cratter]

SCSU loss could be UNDs gain:

A nationally accredited aviation program, St. Cloud State