UA Projects No Enrollment Growth in the Fall

[Gator88NE]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20180608/tuition-will-stay-level-for-in-state-alabama-students-increase-for-out-of-state

UA Vice President of Financial Affairs Matt Fajack said UA’s budget priorities are new undergraduate programs, scholarships to increase in-state enrollment, graduate student stipends and health care, faculty recruitment, a 2 percent merit increase and capital projects.

Fajack said there is a projection of no enrollment growth for the fall, breaking a decade’s long trend for the campus.

Looks like UA has begun to make the turn away from rapid undergraduate enrollment growth toward other priorities. Those would include faculty and graduate student recruitment and “need-based” scholarships for in-state students.

[DavidPuddy]

Sounds sensible. Will see how it plays out.

[UA2009]

That is great news! I have a feeling that all of these arbitrary rankings that come out every year is punishing us because of the rapid growth in undergraduate level. Pump more money into research in the graduate level and retain top talent is the way to go. As much as I have loved the idea of getting more out of state students I can tell it has killed our momentum in state, at least where I live in Huntsville, AL. Focus more on the top-tier students in state

[LucieTheLakie]

Yes, the time has come. The university has nearly doubled in size since Dr. Witt took over in 2003 and began to implement his strategic plan to increase the size of the university. At a certain point, bigger becomes too big. Time to focus on recruiting (and retaining) top faculty and shoring up grad programs.

From 2012:

When (Witt) arrived in 2003 after 35 years as a faculty member and administrator in the University of Texas System, he began work on meeting the goals of his strategic plan, including boosting enrollment from 20,000 to 28,000 students. UA’s campus enrollment has grown to 31,747 students and led Witt to boost the goal again in 2010 to 35,000 by 2020.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/DA/20120305/News/605153570/TL/

Enrollment reached 38,563 for fall 2017.

[Atlanta68]

This is interesting news. I hope it means they have raised admission standards to raise the quality of the lower percentile of the student body.

As for in state enrollment, I have been troubled by the decline in in-state enrollment for a while now. If you look at which high schools are feeding UA the most students, you can see that Auburn has been significantly out-recruiting in state students from well populated areas like Huntsville, Jefferson and Shelby County and Baldwin county. For example, I see that no students from one of the state’s top schools, Spanish Fort, enrolled last Fall at UA. Maybe someone mistakenly left it off of the list of feeder schools. Does anyone know if there were really no students from Spanish Fort who enrolled at UA last Fall?

Regardless, UA must be admitting a large number of both in state and out of state elite (ACT of 31 or greater) high school students given that the quality of its upper percentile has dramatically improved over the last few years.

Check out these links to compare UA and Auburn’s relative success in attracting in state students:

https://web.auburn.edu/ir/factbook/enrollment/newstudents/soafmfhs.aspx

http://oira.ua.edu/factbook/reports/admissions-and-new-students/first-time-undergraduate-students/first-time-undergraduates-from-alabama-high-schools/

[LucieTheLakie]

@Atlanta68, I don’t know if you’re aware, but while they’re increasing out-of-state tuition 4% this coming fall, they are freezing tuition for in-state students. One would hope that helps increase in-state applications.

https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/06/tuition_goes_up_at_university.html

[Atlanta68]

Yes, thanks, I saw that. Wonder if they are also shifting recruiting strategies. UA overtook Auburn in enrolling in state students in the mid to late 2000s. but then something happened to reverse the trend.

[LucieTheLakie]

@Atlanta68, I wonder if it isn’t just that Auburn has been more aggressive in recruiting Alabamians? How recent is their “Spirit of Auburn” scholarship?

Spirit of Auburn Scholarships are awarded among Alabama residents with a minimum 28 ACT or equivalent SAT score and a 3.5 high school GPA at three levels beginning in October. Students must have the minimum test score and high school GPA required for consideration at each level. Presidential Scholars receive tuition for four years. Founders Scholars receive $32,000 over four years at $8,000 per year. University Scholars receive $16,000 over four years at $4,000 per year.

http://bulletin.auburn.edu/generalinformation/financialinformation/scholarships/

[Gator88NE]

Interesting enough, UA has more generous in-state merit scholarships (similar $ but slightly lower ACT score requirements).

http://auburn.edu/scholarship/undergraduate/freshman.html

https://scholarships.ua.edu/types/in-state.php

The COA for in-state students is about the same at both schools.

Based on 2017,

AU enrolled 2,776 in-state freshman (total freshman enrollment was 4,836), while UA enrolled 2,287 (out of a total of 7,407 enrolled).

[UA2009]

@Atlanta68 is absolutely correct when it comes to AU absolutely owning us in the bigger cities in this state over the past 10 or so years. But the school to watch out for is Mississippi State due to them offering in-state tuition to bordering states. I know Engineer central Huntsville has an enormous amount of high school students opting to go there, a lot of times these students are University of Alabama legacies. Almost all of Birmingham schools used to be basically feeder schools to UA; not anymore and we need to figure this out quickly.

[Atlanta68]

I tried to get other alumni concerned about this several years ago, and received some interest, but nothing ever happened. If people want to sign a letter of concern, let me know. I will be happy to write up a letter to UA admin, but I suspect they have finally woken up about it.