UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State saw an increase of more than 10,000 undergraduate applications in 2014 compared to the previous year, and more than 74,000 students at all levels received some form of financial aid, according to a report presented today (Nov. 14) to the University’s Board of Trustees by Rob Pangborn, vice president and dean for Undergraduate Education.
Pangborn said the University’s enrollment has increased by more than 1,500 students from last year’s total. The official fall 2014 enrollment count, including undergraduate, graduate, law, medical, World Campus and the Penn College, stands at 95,973.
The above figure comprises a snapshot of students registered on a resident or online basis as of the sixth week of the fall semester. Accounting for students taking World Campus courses in the summer and spring as well, the total enrollment comes to 100,213, which is an all-time high for the University.
Undergraduate applications rose by nearly 14 percent compared to 2013 for a total of 83,702 applications in 2014. The entering baccalaureate class of 16,618, up 3 percent from last year, was almost equally divided between University Park and the Commonwealth Campuses.
“Another positive trend is the increased interest by first-year students in starting their studies at University Park in the summer, this year surpassing 2,000 students for the first time,” Pangborn said. “This not only relieves the enrollment pressure on instructional capacity for entry-level courses in the fall, but puts the classroom and other student-related campus facilities to good use in the summer months.”
Almost 9,000 students are pursuing majors in at the Commonwealth Campuses. The 2+2 option of starting at one campus and moving to another after two years to complete the degree also remains popular, with almost 3,600 students moving to University Park and 700 moving from one Commonwealth Campus to another as rising juniors to access their chosen majors at the new locations.
Pangborn added that while University Park has benefited from students starting in the summer, the Commonwealth Campuses have attracted a growing number of talented transfer students from other institutions and students returning to college after having stopped out for various reasons. In fall 2014, more than 2,900 students — nearly 80 percent of who entered the Commonwealth Campuses — enrolled at Penn Sate with advanced standing of at least 18 credits. “Typically, over half of transfer students who earn degrees at a Commonwealth Campus and almost a third completing their degrees at University Park have begun their studies at a Pennsylvania community college or one of the state system of higher education institutions,” he added.
Pangborn noted that recruitment has been impacted by a decrease in the number of college-bound Pennsylvania high school graduates and Penn State’s strategic goal of becoming a global University. While Pennsylvania residents still constitute 71 percent of undergraduates University-wide, over the past decade out-of-state domestic enrollments have increased from 16 percent to 21 percent and international enrollments have risen from 2 percent to 8 percent.
“Strong interest from out-of-state students has traditionally come from the contiguous states of New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Virginia, where Penn State has recruiting staff on the ground and a very strong alumni volunteer presence,” Pangborn said, “but these neighboring regions have recently been joined by the more distant states of California, Florida and Illinois.”
In addition, 1,500 first-year undergraduate international students enrolled this fall, including 867 freshmen at University Park and 650 at Commonwealth Campuses. International students in residence at all levels now exceed 8,000, or about 10 percent of the total resident enrollment, not including the Pennsylvania College of Technology.
“In addition to increasing geographic diversity, we also have seen a steady expansion of our ethnic and racial minority enrollments,” Pangborn said. “Minority students now constitute 23 percent of the fall enrollment at the campuses and 17 percent at University Park, up from 13 percent at both University Park and the campuses a decade ago. In the World Campus, minority students comprise 21.5 percent of all enrollments.”
Pangborn also addressed the state of student aid at the University, noting that 74 percent of undergraduate students University-wide receive some form of aid. Funding from all sources — federal, state, University and private/outside funding — exceeded $1.18 billion in 2013-14, assisting more than 74,000 undergraduate, graduate, medical and law students. Graduate/professional students received $200 million, with nearly half that amount through academic departments in the form of graduate assistantships and fellowships. Undergraduate recipients account for 83 percent of the total or $976 million in the form of loans, grants, scholarships and work-study funding, with federal student aid comprising 62 percent.
“Institutional grants and scholarships are an increasingly important component of the aid we can provide to our students,” Pangborn said. “The growth in Trustee Scholarship endowments, funding of tuition assistance grants, provision of Chancellor Awards to support students at the Commonwealth Campuses, and introduction of the Provost Scholarship program for incoming students are crucial to serving the goal of access and affordability.”
Since its inception, the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, which matches donor endowments with University funding pledged in perpetuity, has grown to 1,284 endowments provided by more than 1,000 different donors. The program provided 4,831 students with support totaling almost $10.7 million, for an average award of just more than $2,200. The average GPA of the recipients was 3.35. Pangborn added the success of the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program is helping many of the University's lowest income students.