February 10, 1999

Media Contact: Rick Moore (619) 594-5204

 

Applications up; grades higher at SDSU

 

San Diego State University has received a record number of applications for admission to its fall 1999 semester. In addition, freshman students admitted to the University are bringing better grades.

"The extraordinary increase in the number of applications is a wonderful testiment to the quality of San Diego State, its faculty and staff," said SDSU President Stephen L. Weber. "California in general and San Diego in particular have committed their futures to the information age; more and more of tomorrow's leaders are applying San Diego State to be a part of that future," he added.

Applications increase

Undergraduate applications are up by nearly 28 percent from the previous year, even though the application period was two weeks shorter.

Semester UG Applications Received Applications Period

Fall 1999 28,391 November 1-30, 1998

Fall 1998 22,386 November 1-Dec.15,1997

 

Since 1993, applications to SDSU have increased 41.4 percent, while applications to the CSU system (not including SDSU) have increased 31.1 percent.

First-time freshmen grades improve

Not only are more freshman students coming to SDSU, they are coming with higher grades. Students who bring a grade point average (GPA) of more than 3.0 in their high school work comprise an increasing segment of the entering freshman class.

Percentage of Entering Freshman Class by GPA

Semester GPA 2-2.49 GPA 2.5-2.99 GPA3-3.49 GPA 3.5-4

Fall 1998 3.1% 30.1% 44.5% 22.3%

Fall 1995 5.7% 38.2% 40.0% 16.2%

 

Implementation of enrollment management

"We are quite proud that the quality of our academic program is recognized by increasing numbers of prospective students who want to become a part of San Diego State," said Weber. "We note with pleasure that we are attracting students who are better prepared to make the most of their college experience."

These changes have been anticipated as SDSU implements enrollment management for the first time in its fall semester admissions cycle. The program seeks to match the number of students admitted to available resources in order to protect academic quality and to prevent a return to the over-enrollment experienced in the mid-to-late 1980s. SDSU received permission to implement enrollment management too late to put the program into effect for fall 1998; consequently it was forced to enroll about 1,150 more students than it had received funding to support. The result was no state support for the more than $6.5 million cost of providing classes and services for those students. In effect, that forced SDSU to "thin the soup" by the equivalent of $280 from each of the 22,000 other full-time equivalent students who attended the campus during that academic year.

"We are determined to protect the academic quality of our program," Weber said, "and at the same time, we are committed to preserving the wonderful diversity of our campus community. We see enrollment management as the best way to satisfy those two very important goals," he concluded.

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