Uncharted depths for admissions
JGFitzgerald -- April 28th, 2009
JMU had about 24,000 applications this year for freshman and transfer slots for 2009-1010, according to a story in the DNR. These numbers are tracked in the university’s statistical summaries. That looks like about 3,000 more applications than last year.
The question that makes it a crap-shoot as the deadline nears for paying deposits: How will the economy affect the percentage of accepted students who actually enroll? Once you make an educated estimate about that number, how many students do you accept to get the desired yield?
Assuming the DNR is accurately reporting the figure of 24,000, the rapid increase (the largest previous year-to-year increase was 1,655 seven years ago) would seem to take the admissions process into uncharted waters. What’s the economy going to do, and what’s it going to do to admissions?
These may be uncharted waters but JMU is such a hot ticket I think all available slots will be filled and then some.