Fall quarter at Ohio State is quickly approaching, and the incoming freshman class may be bigger and smarter than ever.
“This year’s class will be approximately 300 to 350 more students than last year’s freshman class,” said Mabel G. Freeman, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions and first year experience at OSU. “The very good news is that this will also be the strongest and best prepared class in the history of the university. In other words, the additional students coming in are very good students.”
The 2003 freshman class is expected to have 6,250 to 6,300 new students. New freshmen are those who have not attended college between high school and this fall, said Gail Capel-Stephenoff, director of enrollment management.
The university will not know exact numbers for attending freshmen this fall until mid-October, Capel-Stephenoff said. Right now, only estimates can be given based on the payment of acceptance fees and orientation attendance.
“We track students through an admissions funnel. It starts when they apply and then they are admitted, but we don’t have a good idea yet if they will enroll or not.” Capel-Stephenoff said. “We have an even better idea of who will be attending after we see who was at orientation, because 95 to 97 percent of all students who attended orientation will attend Ohio State.”
The final orientation for new students ended last week. The attendance at this year’s orientation was the highest it’s ever been, according to Freeman, and now the focus on incoming freshman is changing.
“Now the university’s attention will shift to making sure that we provide our first-year students with the advising support, academic opportunities, university information, and student life programs that will insure their successful transition into our university.”
Exact numbers, rather than estimates, will be available after the second week of October, following the 15th day census.
“The first weeks of school we still have students dropping classes and paying fees, so we have the 15th day census, which is 15 days following the first day of class, and that is when the Office of Enrollment numbers are set in stone,” Capel-Stephenoff said.
This year’s freshman class may also be more culturally diverse than past freshman classes. Capel-Stephenoff projects between 560 and 580 African Americans, 170 to 190 Hispanics, 20 to 30 Native Americans, and 350 to 370 Asian Americans will be incoming freshmen this fall.
It is harder for Capel-Stephenoff to estimate the number of international students that will be attending OSU because of the recent problems with increased international security measures.
“Obviously, ever since Sept. 11, there have been increasing challenges for international students completing additional documentation in order to leave their countries and come into ours,” Freeman said. “Because we still have another month before school begins, it is difficult to know at this point what our actual international undergraduate enrollment will be.”
