There are 145 fewer students studying at Western Illinois University this spring than there were last year. Enrollment fell from 10,821 in the spring of 2014 to 10,676 this spring. That’s a 1.3% drop.
Andy Borst, Director of Admissions, said students leave for a variety of reasons, but he does not believe it is because of dissatisfaction with Western.
“Very few of them are leaving Western to go to another four year (school). So you can make the inference from that that’s its largely either academic, location, or financial.”
He said students are most likely to leave Western after their first year and very few make their way back.
Although overall enrollment is down this semester, the number of transfer students and those in graduate school is up.
“It’s the first optimistic note that we’ve had that our enrollment is starting to stabilize,” said Borst.
He said this was the first time since the 2008 recession that there’s been an increase in graduate students. 66 more enrolled this semester, a boost of 3.8%. Borst credits the increase to the recruitment of international students, who he said largely study at the graduate level.
Borst said the 78 additional transfer students can be attributed to Western’s partnership with local community colleges that turn over the graduates of their two-year programs.
Fall Enrollment Outlook:
Borst said early indicators show the freshman class is looking strong for the fall.
He said applications to the school are up by 1,000.
Borst said Western recruited in 500 more high schools this year. He said there’s also been a 150% increase in the number of students accepted from the St. Louis area. Western opened a recruitment office within the past year to serve that area.
Borst said he recruits off of three major priorities:
- Program- Do we offer the major the student is looking for?
- Place – We’re selling the campus and town of Macomb and the Quad Cities.
- Price – We have to make sure we have an affordable option for students
