There are 175 fewer incoming freshman at APU this year compared with last fall, marking a significant decrease in enrollment from previous years.
According to Director of Admissions David Burke, there are many steps to take to attempt to meet next year’s goal of 1,150 students.
Freshmen enrollment this fall was 1,225, which included international students. On average, 95 to 97 percent of incoming freshmen live on-campus, while the remaining 2-3 percent are commuters. Although some freshmen may take online classes, none are solely online students.
There are several reasons why the freshman class is significantly smaller this year. According to Burke, one is pure competition.
“Our primary competitor mix are small- to medium-sized private colleges and universities, and in particular, those that share an evangelical or Christian model,” Burke said. “We also compete against state schools — the Cal States [and] the University of California System.”
With this in mind, APU recruits students in a multitude of ways. Some include online surveys through college search websites, college preparatory tests and college fairs.
More specifically, Burke notes that student recruitment extends to neighboring states and other locations on the West Coast. Students are also invited to apply to the university through application campaigns created by the admissions office and administered by admissions counselors.
When enrollment is lower than projected, admissions re-evaluates its strategies and finds new ways to recruit students. Although lower enrollment does not necessarily affect admissions counselors in a certain way, there is more emphasis put on educating prospective students about APU.
“Being able to see students enter into their freshman year has been so rewarding knowing how much the APU community will continue to shape who they are,” said admissions counselor Shayna Youngs. As a university, we can come together to recruit these upcoming students by opening up our living areas, classrooms, and greeting them when they come on campus.”
In addition to changing tactics for recruitment, changes to the budget come with lower enrollment as well.
“Whenever you miss a projected goal, there are always adjustments that need to be made in the university’s budget, and those will change year to year, depending on what is the best place to allocate resources, or to reduce resourcing,” Burke said. “Whether it’s less being put into university reserves, or whether it’s some kind of operational cost that needs to be adjusted, there are tangible effects [from] not meeting an enrollment goal.”
For the fall 2015 semester, admissions is looking toward an enrollment goal of 450 transfer students in addition to the freshmen. The spring 2015 semester, although projected to bring in a much smaller number of transfer students, will also boost the university’s enrollment numbers.