2016 Fall Enrollment Stats, Continuing Big Out of State Enrollment Increase

[Atlanta68]

http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2016/front

I have yet to see anything in the press about this Fall’s enrollment at UA, so I visited the OIRA page, and found the Fall 2016 Enrollment data.

Some of the interesting things to see include the following.

Continuing growth in size of the freshman class: 7559 vs. 7211 last Fall

Continuing growth, though somewhat slower than in past years, in total enrollment: 37,665 vs. 37,100 last Fall

Continuing growth in both Undergrad and Graduate Engineering: 5882 vs. 5649 last Fall, with the greatest growth in the undergrad program

Continuing slight decline in overall Graduate enrollment: 4629 vs 4649 last Fall

Continuing growth in out of state enrollment: Total in state enrollment is down to only 31.91% of the total enrollment. Last Fall it was 34.78%. 2412 freshmen from Alabama vs. 2508 from Alabama last Fall

The percentage of Asians continues to increase, albeit slowly: 867 vs. 790 last fall

I wonder if UA is keeping quiet about the enrollment stats out of fear that it will upset Alabamians. I support the rise in out of state enrollment, but do think that UA needs to look into the trend toward lower in state enrollment. It isn’t just a percentage decline anymore, but a real change in numbers. If UA is weeding out lower qualified Alabama students, then I support that, but if it is missing out on getting more of the top in state students, then it is not good IMO.

But the increase in revenue from major increases in out of state enrollment surely bodes well for UA being able to afford things like growing Grad programs, especially ones in the STEM fields.

[mom2collegekids]

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Our freshman class is awesome! More than 40% of UA's 7,559-member freshman class scored 30 or higher on the ACT (up from last year's record 36%). #BamaPride #RollTide

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That is an amazing stat! Really! Compare it to many other flagships!

An ACT 30 is top 95% of the nation! Bama has an amazing frosh class.

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More than 31 percent of the freshman class had a high school Grade Point Average of 4.0 or higher, up from 29.5 percent last year.

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The class’s average ACT score is 27.1, the highest ever for UA, and up from last year’s 26.6 average.

The freshman class includes 151 National Merit Scholars, and 2,536 freshmen are enrolled in Honors College, a more than 12 percent increase over 2015.

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[Atlanta68]

wow, awesome, but where did you see that info? Kinda surprised UA isn’t publicizing it more.

[AlbionGirl]

Bama ought to get more recognition for these improvements but the US News rankings continues to push them further down the list each year. 103 this year down from 88 in 2014. It’s not a huge deal but still it’s annoying >:P

[Atlanta68]

It’s due to the darn rating given by clearly clueless high school counselors and the peer evaluation rating that go into the USNWR rankings. Till UA boosts its research profile, that latter factor will stand as an obstacle. Plus, the six year grad rate is still too low relative to other competing schools. Weeding out the lower tier students should help with that.

[mom2collegekids]

I think US News purposely uses a rubric to get the results it wants…and it doesn’t want Bama rising. Bama was rising, and suddenly the rubric adjusted and Bama started sinking like a stone. Crazy, because the school has only gotten BETTER!

Pathetic that they’re using HS GCs who have been shown to know NOTHING over and over and over again. US News might as well ask 3 year olds.

[soyunchico]

I would never have thought so many people enrolled in the honors college.

[my2caligirls]

I attended a high school college fair last night in South OC and the Bama booth was very busy - have a rising junior and Bama is high on our list. Hoping to drive that percenatge of OOS students even higher! Great scholarships are attracting high stat kids.

[cheetahgirl121]

Yes I too am curious why USNWR rankings seem to be going down for UA, when the admitted class stats are going up? Specifically the school of engineering, there are many schools that have better rankings and I know their test scores mid are not as good. Do you think it is because UA does not require as high of a GPA compared to other schools? I know some schools my kids looked at don’t look at GPA so much as where you rank within your class. Example at my d high school you could have a weighted 4.2/ 3.9 unweighted average and be in the bottom half of the class.

[LucieTheLakie]

Everybody knows what the top five or ten schools are; beyond that, it’s all about what you choose to value over something else. The data they assemble is interesting, and can be very helpful, but the ranking itself? It’s just meant to sell more copies of the magazine.

Frank Bruni had a column about them in today’s New York Times. I love this gem:

Shortly before the newest U.S. News & World Report college rankings came out last week, I got a fresh glimpse of how ridiculous they can be — and of why panicked high school seniors and their status-conscious parents should not spend the next months obsessing over them.

I was reporting a column on how few veterans are admitted to elite colleges and stumbled across a U.S. News sub-ranking of top schools for veterans. Its irrelevance floored me. It merely mirrored the general rankings — same institutions, same order — minus the minority of prominent schools that don’t participate in certain federal education benefits for veterans.

It didn’t take into account whether there were many — or, for that matter, any — veterans on a given campus. It didn’t reflect what support for them did or didn’t exist.

It was just another way to package and peddle the overall U.S. News rankings, illustrating the extent to which they’re a marketing ploy.

http://nyti.ms/2cgUo3D

And if you go back and read the earlier column he was referring to (http://nyti.ms/2cnvs88), there was a wonderful comment highlighted under “NYT Picks” by a veteran named Jordan Carpenter (real name–I looked him up on LinkedIn):

After four years and two deployments, I left active duty in 2010 to get my bachelor’s degree. I had struggled during my first attempt at undergraduate work, but my military academic record and GPA from taking online classes were exemplary. During my time in uniform, I learned a foreign language, experienced different cultures, ran a foreign-language radio station in Afghanistan, and made presentations to Iraqi officers. The elite schools I was interested in didn’t care.

Brown University? Rejected. University of Vermont? No Yellow Ribbon program. University of Virginia? Get your GPA up, son.

I’m happy to say I graduated from the University of Alabama, debt-free, after achieving Dean’s List status multiple times and being inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa. It’s amazing what can happen when someone gives you a chance

All I can say is, Roll Tide.

[Gator88NE]

Yes I too am curious why USNWR rankings seem to be going down for UA, when the admitted class stats are going up? Specifically the school of engineering,

Ah…ratings…Keep in mind that 30 schools got added to the list (like Villanova at #50), so that is going to cause schools to slide back a few spots, as these new ones get added. Also, that “rankings” are not the best tool to use when selecting a college, as other factors are far more important.

Here’s an outline of the US News Methodology.

Graduation and Retention Rates (22.5%)
This subset consists of: 80% 6-year graduation rates and 20% first-year student retention

Undergraduate Academic Reputation (22.5%)
Counselor survey results

Faculty Resources (20%)
The subset consists of; Class Size (40%), Faculty Salary (35%), Highest Degree Earned (15%), Student-Faculty Ratio (5%) and Percentage of Full Time Faculty (5%).

Student Selectivity (12.5%)
65% admission test scores, 25% top 10% of class, 10% acceptance rates

Financial Resources (10%)
Per student spending (spending on sports, dorms, etc., does not count)

Graduation Rate Performance (7.5%)
Performance against predicted graduation rate.

Alumni Giving Percentage (5%)

Improving test scores help improve the Student Selectivity score. but that’s only 12.5% of the score (and test scores are only 65% of that or about 8% of the total score. Also, test scores doesn’t consider only the top 1/3 of the class, it’s the whole entering class of freshman.

Lets compare UA to two other similar ranked schools (FSU and AU) using the 2015-2016 CDS info.

Mid range ACT and % that score 30+ composite:
FSU: 25-29 (10.5%)
AU: 24-30 (31.6%)
UA: 22-31 (36%).

Mid range math SAT scores
FSU: 560-640 (40% submitted SAT scores)
AU: 540 to 650 (14% submitted scores)
UA: 490-610 (21% submitted scores)

Looking at the overall test score results (ACT and SAT), FSU and AU are comparable to UA.

At this point, if UA is going to start rising in the ratings, it will need to improve in the other categories, especially Graduation rates (22.5% of the rankings) and Faculty Resources (20% of the rankings).

Undergraduate Engineering program rankings
US News ranks undergraduate engineering programs “are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions”. It’s based on peer assessment surveys results. Deans and faculty are much more interested in the amount of research being done (and reputation of the faculty) than student test scores.

[cheetahgirl121]

@Gator88NE Undergraduate Engineering program rankings
US News ranks undergraduate engineering programs “are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions”. It’s based on peer assessment surveys results. Deans and faculty are much more interested in the amount of research being done (and reputation of the faculty) than student test scores.
Yes, I looked at the methodology for the engineering program rankings. It seems a bit troubling that other peer institutions would not value UA given what appears to be a very robust research department at UA. Of course, I do not know much except what is presented online or press releases. In terms of the test scores for engineering students looking at ASEE, it would appear, that the kids enrolling at UA are very competitive compared to other state flagship schools, but quality of students obviously makes little impact on reputation. Right now I have a very high stat kid who is trying to decide how much the “ranking…reputation” matters when it comes to getting an engineering degree. On the other hand, he has a friend at an IVY institution who is absolutely swamped taking the 20 hours required for his first semester as a freshman engineering student… I guess at many schools they get the 4 year grad rate no matter what. With all the schools out there it really is a balancing act trying to decide how important various factors are when picking a school and trying to decide if all this ranking stuff really matters in the long run?

[UA2009]

How many more competitions and contests does the UA Engineering department need to win in order for other school’s deans start taking notice? I mean, this is getting ridiculous that UA seems to be held to a higher standard for reputation than our peers. Our Engineering department consistently wins or places high in every study/ competition they participate in beating out higher ranked and higher reputable schools every year.

[Atlanta68]

I would imagine that the rep for Auburn among high school counselors, is better than that for UA, given the larger enrollment that Auburn had till the last decade (meaning more Auburn alumni) and the in state anti UA propaganda pushed by the Aubies. I assume they are asking only high school counselors in a school’s region, right?

[threeofthree]

“Anti-UA propaganda pushed by the Aubies”…funny.

[Atlanta68]

That is right. I have heard it my whole life. The Auburn folks have been successful as painting UA as the party school, and in hushed tones, the school with the Blacks, the school that anyone can get into, etc.

[cheetahgirl121]

@Atlanta68 Though I do not doubt that the Auburn/Alabama rivalry is intense I find it highly unlikely that one school could substantially affect the rankings of another institution.
I would hope that academia at these two Universities would be a bit more professional and unbiased.

[soyunchico]

I’m from the Northeast and Bama is way more popular up here. Clearly because of the scholarships but I know many people who really want to go to Alabama even if they didn’t have the scholarships. No one talks about auburn.

[Gator88NE]

I assume they are asking only high school counselors in a school’s region, right?

Nope, that would be too complicated…

Each year, we ask guidance counselors from a nationwide sampling of public high schools in the U.S. News Best High Schools rankings that were gold, silver or bronze medal winners, as well as from the largest private independent schools nationwide, to tell us which National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges they think offer the best undergraduate education to their students. They rate the universities on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being the top score) or mark “don’t know” if they are unfamiliar with a particular college. The three most recent years of survey results, from spring 2014, spring 2015 and spring 2016, were averaged to compute the high school counselor reputation score used in this ranking.

Don’t think we can blame the Auburn crowd for this one…

[Atlanta68]

So you don’t think more out of state counselors would choose, "don’t know,"than counselors in Alabama ? And if a plurality of the counselors in Alabama are Auburn grads, you don’t think that might explain the lower counselor ranking for UA? I haven’t seen this years avg. counselor rating given to each school, but as far back as I can remember, Auburn has long had a higher score in that part of the rubric than UA did.