UNT grows to largest enrollment, sees key gains in high-quality students and remains innovative leader for North Texas

[Harry]

This fall, 4,908 new freshmen at the University of North Texas are learning what finding the perfect fit feels like, making it clear that UNT remains a top choice for serious students seeking a Tier One education in a welcoming and diverse environment.  

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[Ryan Munthe]

Say what you want about athletics, UNT has done an amazing job of eliminating the commuter school tag and the lie that it isn't academically elite over the past decade.

Edited September 14, 2017 by Ryan Munthe

[dmaxel]

All great news, but (just to be devil's advocate because you're not going to make progress if you're not pushing yourself) I know one of the university's goals is to increase overall enrollment. Even with the momentum UNT has had for the past couple years in that metric, this year the number increased by only 142 students. I would've expected us to be around at least 38,500 for this year at the trends they were expecting. Unless, those focuses have faded away slightly in favor of procuring a higher-quality student population.

[Ryan Munthe]

30 minutes ago, dmaxel said:

All great news, but (just to be devil's advocate because you're not going to make progress if you're not pushing yourself) I know one of the university's goals is to increase overall enrollment. Even with the momentum UNT has had for the past couple years in that metric, this year the number increased by only 142 students. I would've expected us to be around at least 38,500 for this year at the trends they were expecting. Unless, those focuses have faded away slightly in favor of procuring a higher-quality student population.

Probably the latter. I was never a fan of the old administration's goal of just being a massive school.

[Ben Gooding]

13 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Probably the latter. I was never a fan of the old administration's goal of just being a massive school.

Probably is the latter, but I'm not opposed at all of tinkering into both. 

[dmaxel]

13 minutes ago, Ben Gooding said:

Probably is the latter, but I'm not opposed at all of tinkering into both. 

Same, as long as it's not enrollment numbers a la aTm.

[Cerebus]

14 hours ago, Ryan Munthe said:

Probably the latter. I was never a fan of the old administration's goal of just being a massive school.

Wasn't the administration's goal, it was the goal set by the THECB.    They wanted us to be at 45,000 by 2015.   

 

Enrollment is not growing like anyone wants it to be at the moment.  I am hopeful that the completion of the i35 project will alleviate traffic concerns.   The state better come up with some funds (and back us on eminent domain) if they want those people to be able to come here, have a place to take classes and do lab work, and park.  

 

 

[Aldo]

15 minutes ago, Cerebus said:

Enrollment is not growing like anyone wants it to be at the moment.  

In general, enrollment grows through bad economic times. We've been through good times the past several years, hurting enrollment.

At least, it's one factor.

[Cerebus]

2 minutes ago, Aldo said:

In general, enrollment grows through bad economic times. We've been through good times the past several years, hurting enrollment.

At least, it's one factor.

Compare our enrollment growth to UTA/UTD.  They are getting some of the students we expected to get, more or less.  

[xyresic]

I agree that the completion of construction around the school will help enrollment at the Denton campus.

It is interesting to see how these enrollment ingredients come together. Overall college enrollment is dropping across the country. Texas has a growing population so out of state schools have made a big push to recruit in Texas. Similar to football recruiting everything we need is here in our backyard and that invites competition.

The core should be freshman enrollment so it's nice to see that continuing to grow, but yes they will need more facilities to support them. The freshman growth was offset to a degree by things like foreign students applying in fewer numbers (not good but probably out of the schools control) and students graduating more quickly than in the past due to new initiatives (good).

I like the strategy of manageable growth with an improved incoming student profile. Just five or so years ago there were unexpected enrollment declines so it's nice to see the gains year in and year out.

I think innovative online offerings are the next thing the school needs to embrace. Places like UTA have done a great job with this. It has really juiced their enrollment numbers. Our administration wants to go this route but needs to get faculty moving to adjust to the new reality of education.

Edited September 15, 2017 by xyresic

[Ben Gooding]

The completion of construction will do wonders across the board. People care about aesthetics. There is no way the campus and surrounding area has been aesthetically appealing to the eyes for these students coming up doing tours of the campus, not to even mention athletes touring.  Once that is all done and the "grand entrance" to the campus is completed (in place of old sac n save per the old construction plan) numbers will increase because the campus will be appealing. 

I would also like to see the average SAT score for students being accepted to grow to 1200 in the very near future. 1165 isn't horrible by any means, but 1200 is kind of the minimum gold standard for a state university. 

[Rubicon]

UNT is actively recruiting in Arizona and Nevada (we're in Arizona). I've alluded before to meetings they've held in Phoenix and Tucson. My son has been accepted to UNT, but it remains to be seen if their scholarship offers can compete with his other ones (he has full tuition at all three Arizona state schools). We can't afford to go there, otherwise. If they can match or exceed our out-of-pocket, we're there! We really like UNT and Denton. 

[GrandGreen]

There are a lot of dynamics against substantial enrollment gains for all colleges.   Access to on-line much cheaper education, dwindling value of a lot of college degrees, and soaring costs of colleges.  

NT also has a goal like most universities of upgrading entry standards. that runs counter to college enrollment.   There also has been an emphasis at NT of getting people a degree in a 4 year window.  

IMO, NT is big enough.  Attendance has been just about level for a long time and that is not bad.  

 

[UNTexas]

I've noticed a trend. My wife is a teacher and she and her friends said places like Arkansas and OU (especially Arkansas) are doing a great job luring kids out if Texas by basically giving in state tuition for good students. A couple kids in my neighborhood are prime examples of this trend.

Edited September 15, 2017 by UNTexas

[dmaxel]

1 hour ago, UNTexas said:

I've noticed a trend. My wife is a teacher and she and her friends said places like Arkansas and OU (especially Arkansas) are doing a great job luring kids out if Texas by basically giving in state tuition for good students. A couple kids in my neighborhood are prime examples of this trend.

I think UNT already does this as well. If they're good enough to get a UNT scholarship, that also entitles them to in-state tuition rates.

[UNTexas]

1 hour ago, dmaxel said:

I think UNT already does this as well. If they're good enough to get a UNT scholarship, that also entitles them to in-state tuition rates.

Does OU do this as well? We were trying to figure out how so many kids from DFW go there. It's not far, I get that but it's not far but out if state tuition is huge money.

[untjim1995]

6 minutes ago, UNTexas said:

Does OU do this as well? We were trying to figure out how so many kids from DFW go there. It's not far, I get that but it's not far but out if state tuition is huge money.

OSU and Arkansas do this for sure, but I don't believe OU does.

[MeanGreenTeeth]

It's funny.  I've had conversations with a couple folks just recently whose kids really wanted to go to UNT, but had to go to Texas State or UTSA instead because they couldn't get in.  I thought they both were joking at first. 20 years ago anyone with half a pulse could get in, so it is good to hear our academic standards are increasing.

[untjim1995]

23 minutes ago, MeanGreenTeeth said:

It's funny.  I've had conversations with a couple folks just recently whose kids really wanted to go to UNT, but had to go to Texas State or UTSA instead because they couldn't get in.  I thought they both were joking at first. 20 years ago anyone with half a pulse could get in, so it is good to hear our academic standards are increasing.

I am living proof of this last part...

BTW, as an aside, Mean Green Teeth, your signature may be the best one of all time on here...that makes me laugh anytime I see it.