Charting UL Enrollment since 1901

[NewsCopy]

  LAFAYETTE — While first-time freshmen enrollment at University of Louisiana at Lafayette is down by 3.8 percent this fall, about 25 percent more recent high-school graduates enrolled at South Louisiana Community College.

The dip in UL’s first-time freshmen numbers is a sign of the university’s growing selectivity, said Steve Landry, ULL provost and vice president of academic affairs.

UL and other public, four-year universities in the state, fully implemented a selective admissions process in 2005, but universities have the discretion to admit a certain percentage of students who don’t meet the admission criteria.

The selective admissions policy was designed to funnel academically unprepared high-school graduates to community colleges for additional academic preparation.

It seems to be working.

The rest of the story

By MARSHA SILLS
Advocate Acadiana bureau

[Boomer]

Lies, damn lies and stats---can somebody list the '08 UL system enrollments????-I see all the % increases and a lot of it is on-line students---what gives????

[NewsCopy]

  Enrollment numbers for UL's fall 2008 semester are showing signs of forward progress for the university.

Preliminary enrollment for the fall 2008 semester is 16,320 - a number just slightly lower than last year's enrollment of 16,345.

And while officials say the stable numbers for overall enrollment are a positive sign, more encouraging numbers show up in the sizes of the sophomore and junior classes.

This year's sophomore class of 3,012 and junior class of 2,682 are both larger than last year's class sizes.

This year, the sophomore class grew by 53 students and the junior class grew by 66.

These numbers are encouraging when measured against a stable freshman class size of just over 2,700.

The rest of the story

Cody Daigle • cdaigle@theadvertiser.com • September 23, 2008

[DrumRoll]

Great guns through 1985...

What happened since then?

Did the same thing happen at the other in state schools?

[Zeebart21]

_ Great guns through 1985...

What happened since then?

Did the same thing happen at the other in state schools? _

Selective admissions. That would be my guess.

Z

[Boomer]

I don't think the select admissions were in place yet --- -Less warm bodies out of high school-could be wrong--- when I was working with Jostens it seems we were worried about falling student numbers for a time--- what about on-line classes ???? Tech and ULM said their classes have picked up due to on-line!!!!!

[MetryCajun]

_ Great guns through 1985...

What happened since then?

Did the same thing happen at the other in state schools? _

Two things.
1) The oil bust. LA has been losing population since the 80's
2) Selective addmissions.

[HoustonCajun]

_ Two things.
1) The oil bust. LA has been losing population since the 80's
2) Selective addmissions. _

If I'm not mistaken, LSU continues to have an increase in enrollment and is now over 30,000 and is selective admissions with possibly higher admission standards than we have. Southeastern is continuing to grow and is very close to passing UL as the 2nd largest university. Up until now, I am not aware of anything the university has done to increase overall enrollment. I would think that by now we should have at least 20,000 students.

[DestinCajun]

If I'm not mistaken, LSU continues to have an increase in enrollment and is now over 30,000 and is selective admissions with possibly higher admission standards than we have. Southeastern is continuing to grow and is very close to passing UL as the 2nd largest university. Up until now, I am not aware of anything the university has done to increase overall enrollment. I would think that by now we should have at least 20,000 students. _

State was at 30K+ from 1999 -2005 but not last year. TOPs probably helps them more than anyone else.

From the Advocate
LSU enrollment dips 4%
Friday, September 21, 2007

LSUs enrollment dipped more than 4 percent this year with a fall semester class of 28,019 students, according to the university. LSU Chancellor Sean O?Keefe said Thursday LSU expected the decline, noting that the university was too big just a few years ago with nearly 31,000 students.

Compare UNO's current enrollment with pre Katrina versus Southeastern's growth in the same timeframe. There may be a connection.

Most evereyone else is seeing leveled attendance figures or small increases.

None of this has much to do with UL except maybe bragging rights. Whether we have 14 or 20K, it's really about the quality of the education more so than the number of bodies walking the campus.



Added FYI:

University of New Orleans
Fall 2005: 17,142
Fall 2006: 11,747
Fall 2007: 11,363
Fall 2008: 11,428

[Cajun Power]

The enrollment levels don't mean a whole lot. A big drop would be bad, obviously, and a big gain would be both good and bad. If UL had +20,000 students, the campus would be even more clogged than it is now and the increase in revenues from the new students would probably be offset by the need for new instructors and facilities (which are already in a bad state and backlogged). If enrollment is steady and academic achievement goes up, then we're doing well.

If SLU ends up topping UL's enrollment, it will be kind of a downer just because of bragging rights, but SLU is a long way from UL in terms of academic quality. I think LSU's selective admissions has had a lot to do with SLU's growth. There are a lot of people from Baton Rouge who go to SLU because they couldn't get in to LSU. The only thing about SLU that scares me, and this is just a gut feeling, is that they probably "know their place" better and will be rewarded for it while UL, who strives to grow and accomplish things outside of the shadow of the flagship will be punished for its insubordination.

[Zeebart21]

The only thing about SLU that scares me, and this is just a gut feeling, is that they probably "know their place" better and will be rewarded for it while UL, who strives to grow and accomplish things outside of the shadow of the flagship will be punished for its insubordination. _

[DestinCajun]

_ State was at 30K+ from 1999 -2005 but not last year. TOPs probably helps them more than anyone else.

From the Advocate
LSU enrollment dips 4%
Friday, September 21, 2007

LSUs enrollment dipped more than 4 percent this year with a fall semester class of 28,019 students, according to the university. LSU Chancellor Sean O?Keefe said Thursday LSU expected the decline, noting that the university was too big just a few years ago with nearly 31,000 students.

Compare UNO's current enrollment with pre Katrina versus Southeastern's growth in the same timeframe. There may be a connection.

Most evereyone else is seeing leveled attendance figures or small increases.

None of this has much to do with UL except maybe bragging rights. Whether we have 14 or 20K, it's really about the quality of the education more so than the number of bodies walking the campus.



Added FYI:

University of New Orleans
Fall 2005: 17,142
Fall 2006: 11,747
Fall 2007: 11,363
Fall 2008: 11,428 _

Here are some enrollment figures found in the 09/25/08 Advocate -

UL
2008 16,320
2007 16,345

Southeastern La.
2008 15,224
2007 14,757

LaStateAM&C@BR
2008 28,194
2007 28,019

Southern U
2008 7,745
2007 8,288


These numbers should be good news for the folks who are concerned that we might drop out of second place in enrollment.