The Office of Admissions plans to send more offers to prospective students than ever before, and although the year-long process is in its early stages, the office is reporting it is already ahead of where it was at this time last year.
“We have only received about 60 to 70 percent of applicants to date,” said Kent Barnds, vice president of enrollment.
Preliminary numbers show that admissions is running about 6 percent ahead with recruitment and 4 percent ahead with admission. This means about 50 more students have already been accepted than this time last year.
“The first-year cohort number is based on capacity and revenue and an overall goal for enrollment: our Strategic Enrollment Plan,” said Courtney Wallace, director of admissions. “This number could be more or less than the year before based on a variety of factors, for example, the size of the Augie graduating class each year.”
Barnds said that while the decision process has just begun, admissions is running behind in commitments.
“We only have about half of the commitments that we had this time last year,” he said.
Augustana expects to welcome a class size near identical to the class size of 2018.
“We don’t know yet if we will admit more or less students than last year overall,” said Wallace. “We will accept the number we feel like we need to admit in order to enroll a class of 700 to 720 first-year students.”
Some students on campus express concern about the growing number of students on campus as class sizes get larger and larger.
“It’s concerning because this year many people are feeling overpopulated in the residence halls, and with more students coming into the college, it is a little worrying that we will run out of space,” said Janelle Norden, a first-year student.
However, the admissions department ensures that this is a concern that has been taken into consideration.
“We coordinate with Student Life, Residence Life, the Business Office, the Provost’s Office, the president and the Board of Trustees when developing our goals,” said Wallace. “The goals consider the number of seats we have free in classes, beds we will have available, financial assistance and the overall objective to have a full-time enrollment of about 2,500. Rest assured, we want current and incoming students to continue to have an excellent Augie experience.”
As for the incoming class, the rigor of the process remains strong.
“The admissions process is a holistic process and what we look for is a balance in three different areas,” said Barnds.
These areas are academic, co-curricular and how well a student will fit in and feel comfortable.
“We encourage interviews with our students so that we can begin to identify this set of factors because we believe with these three factors, the student has an opportunity, with the right amount of challenge and support, to be successful at Augustana,” said Barnds.