Nicholls does not expect a decline in first-time freshman enrollment despite selective admission standards being implemented in the fall, Courtney Cassard, director of enrollment services said.In 2001, the Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana system published a master plan in which the state estimated that half of Nicholls’ prospective students would not be admitted into the University, Cassard said. Later, statewide enrollment was projected for Nicholls to enroll 300 fewer students.
“The Board of Regents brought in a consulting firm to do some enrollment projections. They projected we would be at 1,194 (students) for the fall, which means a loss of about 300 students,” Cassard said. “We don’t think we are going to lose 300 students.”
Cassard believes the University will not enroll fewer students, because high schools are better preparing their students.
“More students than ever are taking the TOPS core and as a result of that we’ve seen ACT scores rise,” Cassard said. “So, students are coming to us more prepared than they have in the past.”
According to Cassard, the admissions office has stopped “wasting its resources” on students it believes will not be successful at Nicholls.
“We’ve totally changed our behavior with regards to recruiting,” Cassard said. “We don’t cast a wide net anymore. We are more selective and targeted into the students we spend our human and financial resources on.”
Nicholls has teamed up with area community colleges and are referring those students who may not be successful at Nicholls to the community colleges.
The admissions office is also identifying low-performing high schools.
“We have stopped visiting those schools. We still recruit individual students from those schools,” Cassard said.
The University will continue to recruit from the feeder parishes, but Nicholls is seeing an increase in students applying from out-of-state and an increase in international students as well, Cassard said.
“We always are going to service our feeder parish schools. That always is going to be our bread and butter, but we are also getting a lot more students from out-of-state,” Cassard said. “It is not feasible for us to make visits all over the country to recruit students, so we are doing more in the means of communicating with those students now than going around the state to visit various high schools.”
In addition to high schools better preparing students for college, Cassard credits the success the admissions office is having in keeping recruitment numbers up to the administration dedicating more money to scholarships.
“Last year, we had the biggest freshman class ever here,” Cassard said. “We are identifying the high schools where excellent students are coming out, and we are gearing scholarship dollars toward those schools.”
More students are attending Scholar’s Day each year. Scholar’s Day is an event hosted by the admissions office that recognizes University scholarship recipients. When the University began hosting Scholar’s Day three years ago, there were approximately 100 students in attendance. Now, more than 200 students attend Scholar’s Day.
“The focus is getting highly qualified students that we will be able to retain and graduate,” Cassard said.
One of the requirements of the new admissions criteria is the need for only one developmental course. Some students who need one developmental course have enrolled in the Summer Bridge program, which allows students to take their developmental course during the summer to be prepared for their non-developmental courses in the fall.
