Bradley Freshman Enrollment

[Mikovio]

ISU enrollment is down 8%.

"But the budget crisis casts a long shadow. This fall's incoming freshman class is estimated to be around 3,350 students. That's down from the 3,638 students in last fall's freshman class."

Source:

http://wglt.org/post/isus-fall-semester-starts-strong-numbers#stream/0

[tornado]

ouch- that is almost a 10% drop..
I would like to know what all the factors are. Maybe with the economy improving the privates look like better options.
There have been several articles on how the Illinois State Universities are in serious financial trouble so potential students probably do fear a big spike in tuition is coming..

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/opinion/ct-sta-berg-column-st-0317-20170316-story.html

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/moodys-downgrades-7-illinois-universities-5-are-junk/

[cpacmel]

More from that link:

While enrollment was down at many Illinois campuses last fall, Illinois State University weathered the fiscal crisis in better shape. The University drew record-breaking freshman classes in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

"The last four classes we've had here are the largest freshman classes we've had in decades," added Jeff Mavros, ISU's director of admissions.

And while Freshmen enrollment is down some from last year, overall enrollment is still going very strong at Illinois State:

According to Mavros, Illinois State University is the No. 1 destination for transfer students in Illinois.

"About 34 percent of ISU students started elsewhere. That's a real point of pride for us," he said.

[Da Coach]

That's good, I hope they all graduate, since all of us Illinois residents are paying taxes to subsidize your students.

[Mikovio]

And while Freshmen enrollment is down some from last year, overall enrollment is still going very strong at Illinois State:

They haven't released overall enrollment but it sounds like it's down.

https://www.ilnews.org/news/schools/illinois-campus-headcount-more-than-a-week-away/article_40cfa788-866e-11e7-93a4-87620ce15b90.html

"ISU spokesman Eric Jome said he actually expects fewer students on campus this year.

"The last three years we've set some records for freshman enrollment," Jome noted. "Last fall, our enrollment topped just over 21,000 students. This year we expect that's going to moderate just a little bit.""

[tornado]

when the economy is bad people look more to send their kids to state schools, so I think that benefited ISU the past several years -
But with those bigger classes, ISU got stung by the state's funding woes - so it has hurt them significantly -- it was actually a double whammy - more students to educate yet less money to do it with...
Thus ISU has scaled back, equipment purchases put on hold, hiring freezes, programs cut and some state schools had layoffs....etc...
The people at Chicago State claimed We no longer have any tissue, any additional cuts that we can cut," Chicago State University interim President Cecil B. Lucy said. "We are basically down to the bone. We have nothing more to give."
Several state schools including EIU (their President is Bradley's former Provost Dr. Davod Glassman) have had to lay off employees and teachers.
"Northeastern Illinois University prepares to shut down next week as 1,100 employees take five required furlough days and hundreds of student employees temporarily lose their jobs"

ISU's President said "...it will take years of hard work to reverse the damage that has been done."

He listed as "damage" - ".....pushing back timelines for bigger projects.....cuts in the right places, we have eliminated or left vacant more than 129 faculty jobs ... we had bills to pay left over from FY 16.......significant brain drain and your best faculty and staff abandon Illinois for more stable and predicatbale opportunities."

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/pf/college/illinois-budget-higher-education/index.html

[tornado]

Optimism from BU President Dr. Gary Roberts

https://twitter.com/robertsg15/status/902193882104041472

[tornado]

unofficial word is that somewhere between 1,230-1,250 freshmen moved in this weekend.. may still be some late arrivals..
http://www.centralillinoisproud.com/...mpus/794043335

Freshman enrollment is 1270!!
plus - new WEEK-TV interview with Dr. Gary Roberts

http://www.week.com/clip/13680876/full-interview-with-bradley-university-president-gary-roberts

[cpacmel]

ISU enrollment is down 8%.

"But the budget crisis casts a long shadow. This fall's incoming freshman class is estimated to be around 3,350 students. That's down from the 3,638 students in last fall's freshman class."

Source:

http://wglt.org/post/isus-fall-semes...mbers#stream/0

http://www.centralillinoisproud.com/news/local-news/illinois-state-university-enrollment-stays-strong/805628800

The official fall enrollment numbers were calculated by the school after the 10th day of school. ISU saw only a slight decrease; 1.2% in total enrollment after one of the highest enrollment years in 2016. In 2016 the school had 21,039 students, this year the school has 20,784 students. Transfer student enrollment continues to remain strong as well.

[tornado]

ISU enrollment is down ...
...This fall's incoming freshman class is estimated to be around 3,350 ....

"Illinois State University welcomed 3,352 new freshmen to campus for the 2017-2018 academic year."

https://illinoisstate.edu/

Mikovio - I'd say that, as always, you were absolute correct, so don't let them intimidate you!

actually, it is rumored that the majority of the DROP in ISU's enrollment is accounted for by the ISU basketball players transferring elsewhere or being run off by Dan Muller.

[Mikovio]

Well we did get the full picture--

http://wglt.org/post/freshman-enrollment-falls-illinois-state-university#stream/0

ISU has 3,352 freshmen this fall, down 9.3 percent (or 342 fewer students) from fall 2016. ISU also saw an 11.7 percent decline in the number of new transfer students (239 fewer students).

ISU??™s overall enrollment??”including upperclassmen and graduate students??”remained relatively steady, despite recruiting pressures from out-of-state competitors and uncertainty about the state budget. ISU??™s total fall enrollment (20,784 students) is down 1.2 percent versus fall 2016 (21,039 students). One bright spot this fall was an overall 2.4 percent increase in graduate students??”the highest graduate student enrollment in the past three years.

So they took more grad students to mask the drop in freshman enrollment. The problem from a fiscal standpoint is freshmen will generally pay well over $10k out of pocket in tuition while these grad students often pay no tuition at all.

[tornado]

I don't think anything in this thread is meant to be against ISU - just the good news about the skyrocketing enrollment at Bradley ...
which goes against what's happening elsewhere - that the enrollment is declining a lot of other places in Illinois (as it has at ISU).

Gotta remember - the horrible tax situation is causing people to LEAVE Illinois in record numbers - so population is down, then there's unprecedented severe state budget and fiscal problems that force some campuses to layoff staff & teachers, raise tuition, and make it harder for prospective students to go there and the budget issues also trickle down to other PRIVATE schools.

[Da Coach]

And Bradley has not had to lower their admission standards to get an increased enrollment. There are some schools that do lower admission thresholds whenever they need to counter a drop in enrollment. It is currently happening at state schools in Illinois, and it has happened in past years at Illinois State.-

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-u-of-i-hikes-aid-accepts-lower-scores-for-instate-students-20151123-story.html

[Mikovio]

SIU fell even harder in terms of total enrollment (presumably because they didn't boost grad enrollment):

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/education/isu-sees-slight-drop-in-overall-enrollment/article_8003f199-cf13-5ef6-8c53-e59afc3a7aff.html

Fall enrollment at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale showed a steeper drop in students, a decrease of nearly 9 percent compared to last year.

SIU Chancellor Carlo Montemagno said fall enrollment totals about 14,500, with the biggest decrease seen in the incoming freshman class: 408 fewer students than fall 2016.

I do think it's clever what ISU has done and would be interested to see how it impacts their budget. I've met a couple of ISU grad students enrolled this fall already and one said tuition was waived and she's being paid a stipend to go there. If they boosted grad enrollment as window dressing on the freshman and transfer drop that should hit them in the pocketbook. ISU doesn't have professional programs like law or med which are profitable.

[tornado]

There are 11 4-year schoools in Illinois that are STATE SCHOOLS
and freshman enrollment is down at 9 of them!

Only 2 had slight increases - UIC (5% increase) and U of I (3% increase)

http://wglt.org/post/freshman-enrollment-falls-illinois-state-university#stream/0

"Falling public university enrollment shows effects of state budget impasse"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-state-university-enrollment-drops-met-20170912-story.html