Chadron State sees promising spring enrollment numbers

From the Fall 2018 semester to the Spring 2019 semester, the persistence for the current freshman class is at around 89 percent, a 7 percent increase from last year’s numbers.

According to Jon Hansen, Vice President of Enrollment Management, Marketing and Student Services, the persistence rate is defined by the number of freshman students enrolled full-time in the fall that are still taking classes in the spring semester. Persistence is one of the many ways people like Hansen calculate enrollment, with variables such as success rate and retention factoring in as well.

Starting at the time a student enrolls as a freshman, records are kept that track how long the student stays. For the freshman class, retention is tracked first. Though persistence is tracked “closely from the first semester to the second semester,” retention will be watched from the start of the freshman year to the sophomore year, according to Hansen. After that, enrollment is tracked in a variety of ways, including through graduation rates once a student hits their fourth year.

The 10-year average for fall-to-fall retention falls at around 65 percent. Over the last 10 years, Chadron State’s graduation rates, in particular the six-year graduation rate, has reached around 42-46 percent. This, according to Hansen, is above the national average for four-year institutions. The 65 percent fall-to-fall retention rate also falls in the above-average category for four-year, public, open-enrollment institutions.

As far as predicting how enrollment may fluctuate, an even larger variety of parts play a role in deciding not only how many students are staying, but more importantly why they’re staying.

“From semester to semester we look at grades, we look at academic suspension to see if that’s trending a certain way. Academic suspension numbers are about half of what they were a couple years ago, so that’s a good indicator that students are being successful. We look at our housing numbers, so as we look at what enrollment will be next fall, with at least the incoming freshman class we’re looking at really good indicators with deposits for housing.”

Scholarship applications are also tracked, with applications up by 30 to 40 percent in numbers of applications. From last year’s 280 scholarship applications, this year has seen a nearly doubled amount with over 400 applications sent in.

Though the online and graduate student population is “a bit harder to predict,” Hansen said the numbers available are a promising look into CSC’s future.

“We’ve made up ground in this semester, so next fall should be better and heading in the right direction,” Hansen said.