Bradley Freshman Enrollment

[tornado]

...
ISU has 3,352 freshmen this fall, down 9.3 percent ...ISU also saw an 11.7 percent decline in the number of new transfer students ....

as expected, ISU is in enough trouble financially that they are asking for $150 million

"Illinois State Univ. Announces $150M Fundraising Campaign"

"Much has been written and said about the perilous financial situation of most state universities in Illinois. Not to mention the perilous financial situation of every other aspect of state government.

Illinois State University appears to be attempting to undertake at least some measure of fiscal independence.

.. The campaign is seeking private money to fund scholarships, leadership education and campus remodeling"

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/illinois/articles/2017-09-18/illinois-state-univ-announces-150m-fundraising-campaign

[tornado]

Freshman enrollment is 1270!!
plus - new WEEK-TV interview with Dr. Gary Roberts
http://www.week.com/clip/13680876/fu...t-gary-roberts

well, back to BRADLEY's enrollment....

the final numbers are in - as there are always a few enrolled students that drop out or leave or some even possibly transfer in late within the first few days but ...

Bradley current freshman enrollment is 1270 (total enrollment 5,59 which represents a
WHOPPING 36% JUMP from the enrollment from 2 years ago (933) when Joanne Glasser was canned and Dr. Gary Roberts subsequently took over.

36% in just two years!!!!! - a figure that would have been unimaginable two years ago given the mess Bradley was in under Glasser.

Thank you Dr. Roberts & staff- and all this success was accomplished WITHOUT altering tuition or lowering academic standards for enrollment (which is how most colleges solve drops in enrollment but then that results ultimately in lower student performance and lowered graduation and placement rates, which hurts even worse down the road)

[tornado]

UPDATE...

after record setting freshman enrollment numbers last year -
Bradley set NEW records THIS YEAR - by accepting an INCOMING FRESHMAN CLASS with an average GPA of 3.76!!!
In other words- the GPA of the entire incoming class averages out to almost an "A"

The average ACT score for the incoming class is 25.58, almost a point higher than last year and also at near-record level.
(for comparison, the average ACT score at ISU is under 24 and at WIU it is just 21 and SIU it's just 22)

The overall numbers will end up being 1100-1120 in class size (compared to last year's 1265
and starkly contrasted with Joanne Glasser's last two disastrous years of 940 & 927)

Here's the track record of Bradley's freshman incoming class size:
Pre-2013: averages 1,050-1,075
2013: 1,080
2014: 940 (a disaster that prompted a gob of phony excuses and blame shifting by Dr. Glasser)
2015: 927 (then Joanne Glasser leaves at the end of the 2014-15 school year..and Dr. Roberts takes over as President)
2016: 1,100
2017: 1,265
2018: 1,120 (est.)

all is back to going well on the Hilltop thanks to Dr. Gary Roberts & staff and the great fans of Bradley basketball who were instrumental in getting the house cleaned in 2015 and the new staff brought in.

[Mikovio]

Good numbers. If we ever fall behind ???I Screwed Up??? might as well call it a day lol.

[molar50]

The new engineering building will be a plus in attracting new students. Brighter days are ahead on the Hilltop.

[PhiAlphaBoy]

The new engineering building will be a plus in attracting new students. Brighter days are ahead on the Hilltop.

I would argue that those "brighter days" are already here. As tornado said above, Bradley has been hitting their targeted enrollment numbers each of the past three years... Higher numbers this year would have been counterproductive. It's possible, however, that the new business and engineering school may further increase Bradley's profile in attracting even higher quality students.

[tornado]

ISU just posted their 2018 enrollment numbers

overall enrollment is down from 20,784 in 2017 to 20,635 in 2018
Undergrad enrollment is down from 18,330 in 2017 to 18,107 in 2018
Freshman enrollment is up - 3.352 in 2017 to 3,689 in 2018
Average GPA of incoming freshmen 3.4
Average ACT score 24 (both numbers are unchanged from 2017)

[Mikovio]

They say ACT is ???near 24???, so it??™s definitely less than that.

[tornado]

by ISU reasoning, 23.2 is near 24...

[braves16]

https://thesouthern.com/news/local/siu/despite-biggest-enrollment-dip-yet-siuc-chancellor-predicts-rebound/article_42dcccf9-f1a4-531b-9e12-10ae15b0ec5f.html

[tornado]

wow-
SIU's total enrollment dropped by HALF since the 90's
and by almost 1500 (12%) just in the past year!!

And their FRESHMAN enrollment - something Bradley's been GOOD at recruiting-
is down by 20% to only 1133 this year!!!!!

Remember- Bradley's freshman enrollment was 1,265 last year and 1,120 this year - so SIU's new freshman enrollment is the same as Bradley's
They simply won't survive at those numbers.....they have to do something

then they brag - "Some 71.08 percent of last year’s incoming class remains enrolled, the highest retention rate in recent years"
What?? 30% of your incoming students from last year have left and that's great? Whoa....how bad was that number last year - 50%?
You'd better find out why so many students who enroll there cut & run after just one year!

[Mikovio]

SIU has been beset by some bad leadership until very recently. Rivalry aside I hope they turn it around.

[braves16]

wow-
SIU's total enrollment dropped by HALF since the 90's
and by almost 1500 (12%) just in the past year!!

And their FRESHMAN enrollment - something Bradley's been GOOD at recruiting-
is down by 20% to only 1133 this year!!!!!

Remember- Bradley's freshman enrollment was 1,265 last year and 1,120 this year - so SIU's new freshman enrollment is the same as Bradley's
They simply won't survive at those numbers.....they have to do something

then they brag - "Some 71.08 percent of last year??™s incoming class remains enrolled, the highest retention rate in recent years"
What?? 30% of your incoming students from last year have left and that's great? Whoa....how bad was that number last year - 50%?
You'd better find out why so many students who enroll there cut & run after just one year!

There had been reports that SIU's freshman class was just under 1000, so they have that going for them.

[tornado]

even tho each state school does keep raising tuition, they also get thousands of dollars of taxpayer subsidies for EACH STUDENT.

We always hear claims that they are self sufficient and that they don't rely on public subsidies but recent FACTS prove that's a lie.

ISU receives $3,551 in "state funding per full-time student"*, but there are other state schools receive up to almost double that...and SIU gets almost HALF their operating budget from state subsidies. *
But as the state schools have to raise their tuition, their enrollment will drop and the quality comes into question if people are no longer going there...

Bradley doesn't rely on a cent of taxpayer money - yet continues to be rated again and again as one of the best Universities in the nation as well as one of the best values in the nation for an education!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elmhurst/community/chi-ugc-article-us-news-world-report-ranks-dominican-univer-2018-09-11-story.html

https://www.bradley.edu/offices/communications/pr/releases/article.dot?id=3ef7aab2-eb0b-454b-9412-34063026c631

https://www.bradley.edu/inthespotlight/story/?id=f2e949c4-7f94-4b4d-a70a-e14d187e7516

[tornado]

Here's a BRAND NEW interview with BU President Gary Roberts.... talking mostly about enrollment... there's also more of what Dr. Roberts said in a separate recent interview

a couple facts...

- "This year we had a record 11,205 freshmen applications. That's the most in Bradley's history."
However, after a couple years of outstanding incoming freshman and even record freshman enrollment, numbers were down slightly this year, as Bradley has not weakened admission standards just to keep the numbers up.

- "We have 1090 new freshmen who hail from 31 states, 1 US territory - US Virgin Islands, 16 foreign countries and 5 of 7 continents."
The freshman enrollment of 1090 is 30 fewer than what Bradley had targeted for

- the number of high school graduates seeking placement in college is going down and will continue thru 2026. Class sizes in Illinois and elsewhere who will become high school graduates are smaller and are due to smaller family sizes that follow economic recession that started 1-2 decades ago..
(births per 1,000 women in the US dropped from 70 in 2007 to just 60 by 2016)

- costs of college educating a student is skyrocketing

- Bradley is one of the few schools that is staying ahead of the game and not seeing declining enrollment and declining numbers of new applications...

- Dr. Roberts had said earlier that total enrollment was down from what was hoped for but that he believed it was due to the unfortunate negative press Bradley got following the tragic off campus shooting of a Chicago student last spring.

- Bradley Hilltopics is undergoing a name change - it will now be called "Bradley Magazine"

https://www.centralillinoisproud.com/wmbd-this-morning/bradley-university-update-with-dr-gary-roberts/1512255197