OSU system reports only slight enrollment decrease for 2006-07

Friday, September 15, 2006

Oklahoma State University announced Friday at its Board of Regents meeting that student enrollment for the 2006-07 school year is 32,402 across its five-campus system.

That is a drop of 1% from last year’s OSU System enrollment of 32,721. The Stillwater and Tulsa campus enrollment shows a slight decrease of 0.7% to 23,307 students, which includes an enrollment of 2,072 at OSU-Tulsa.

“The number of Oklahoma high school graduates is decreasing, which is one reason why OSU is working hard to recruit potential students from out-of-state,” said David Schmidly, OSU System CEO and president.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education data projects a lower number of Oklahoma high school graduates for the next five years.

"We believe in being proactive, and that’s why during the past year OSU has opened student recruitment offices in Dallas, Houston and now in Puebla, Mexico,” Schmidly said. “We are working on a variety of other recruiting and retention initiatives to grow enrollment.” 

OSU’s current enrollment shows that 77.3% of its students are residents of Oklahoma, and 22.7% are non-residents.

The OSU Class of 2010 includes 3,236 students from around the world. Statistics show that of those new freshmen, nearly a fourth were ranked in the Top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes and about a half were in the top 25 percent. A total of 480 new freshmen had 4.0 GPAs.

This freshman class boasts an ACT average of 24.7, an all-time high and an increase for the fourth-consecutive year at OSU. Eleven percent, or 359 new freshmen, are participating in the OSU Honors College where admission is based on ACT composite scores of 27 or higher with a high school GPA of 3.75 or higher.

“Many of these new freshmen are residing in the OSU residential learning communities where they have mentors and can learn and share with peers pursuing similar areas of study,” Schmidly said.

The number of National Merit Scholars also increased for the second year to 21.

The Class of 2010 also includes 166 Regents Distinguished Freshman Scholarship recipients; 50 automatic qualifiers as Academic Scholars by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, who will receive an annual award of $5,500 in cash per academic year plus an OSU tuition waiver; and 80 OSRHE institutional nominates will receive an annual award of $2,800 in cash plus an OSU tuition waiver.

“This year’s freshman class is further proof we are making sustained headway toward our strategic plan goal of elevating the value of an Oklahoma State University education,” Schmidly said. “We look forward to what this strong class will accomplish at OSU and beyond.”

Stillwater High School is first among the top 10 feeder schools to OSU this fall with 120 students, followed by Jenks with 116, Tulsa Union 97, Edmond Memorial 84, Putnam City North 78, Broken Arrow 67, Bartlesville 54, Owasso 49, and Edmond Santa Fe 43.

Tulsa Community College is again the largest transfer feeder institution with 540 students, up from 497 a year ago. Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa is second at 242 students, also up from last year’s 216. The NOC Gateway program had 150 students transfer this fall, compared to 87 last year.

International students represent 113 countries this fall, and although international student enrollment is down 5.7% to 1,725 students due to high numbers of graduating students, the number of new international students has jumped by 90 this fall.

Commitment to diversity is a major priority in the OSU System.

“We take pride in the fact that the student body in our system is ethnically diverse, and we are working hard to improve diversity across our campuses,” Schmidly said.

Hispanics again lead in minority enrollment with an increase of 8.2%, or 945 students. Highlighted by a 16.5% increase in freshman enrollment, total African American student enrollment increased from 1,928 to 1,972, or 2.3%. Asian-American enrollment increased 7.3%, or 620 students. Native American enrollment, the highest minority enrollment in the OSU System, saw a slight decrease of 0.6%, to 2,969 students.