University of Maryland Baltimore County. Academic Reputation
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 124 072 HE 007 936 AUTHOR Wright, William A.; Van Sickle, Tina TITLE An Analysis of Recruitment and Enrollment at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. PUB DATE Oct 74 NOTE 56p. EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$3.50 Plus Postag DESCRIPTORS *College Cloixe4 *College Fre men; College Majors; .\ *Enrollment Rate; Enrollmentrends; *Highet Education; High School Graduates; Law Instruction; Medical Education; Psychology; *Recruitment IDENTIFIERS *University of Maryland Baltimore County ABSTRACT The available Maryland higher educationmarket population is analyzed. Actual and projected births, patteliis school enrollment and graduation, and the out-of-state migration of high school graduates are discussed. Trends in University`of_Maryland 'Baltimore County enrollment indicated a shift in the major fill study Oreferencks toward law, medicine, and psychology. The most significant fadtdr in the entering freshmen selection of UMBC was its academic reputation and special program. (Author) 4 0 ***************************************4i******************************* Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERICiakes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available.Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of.the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction ServiceEDRS). ERSA It.s.not * responsible for the quality of the original document.Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from,theoriginal. * ********************************************************************** 444 AN ANALYSIS OFRECRUITMENT AND ENROLLgENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY' DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. U S EDUCATION WELFAREOF -NATIONAL INSTITUTE eOUCATION HAS !SEENREPRO- THIS DOCUMENT RECEIVED FROM OUcEITE.K.ACTLYarrORt..ANIZATION AS ORIGIN- THE PERSON VIEhoy DR OPINIONS; ATING IT POINTSTOF STATE° 00 NOTNECESSAITTI.Y REPREqF NATIONAL INSTITUTE SENTOFFICIAL OR 'POLICY EOUCATION.".SITiON Prepared by: William . Wright qnd Tina Van Sickle Office of titutional Research - University. oMaryland Baltimore County. October 1974 .1J 4 O REPORT ON RECRUITMENT AND ENROLLMENT OFFICE-OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH MARKET SEGMENT available market populatipn must take . The analysisofiur account of such f ctors as: actualnand projected births, \ high school enrollment,high school graduates; migration patterns,..and'college egiollment and survival rate The Maryland birth rate has declined 15% in the last 10 years from 'aigh of 79,000 iIN4964 to'-a low of 67,000 An. 1973. The Maryland Depai-tmer?,tin.fiPlanning estimates that the state will have a 1% 4eduction in births per year thrdugh \\\ 1975 *Tablb 1),, ,The:Maryland State Department of Education projects a peak of 62,000 high"school seniors in 1980 compared to at actua151,500.inthe class of 1972 (Table 2). In the Baltimore SMSA (comprised of Paltimore City and Baltimgle, Anne-Arundel, Harford4 and;Howard Countdes), 4 from w ch w5,,attradt.95%*Of dun student body;*all.of the areas will have aignificant percentage'decline in H.S. senio±s between 1946 and r980 (Tables 2, 3). Howard' .county has the ,hig'fisst percentage increase in each of the ,periods (Table '3) . 1 Thp Maryland State Department of Educ'gtion estimates, that 49.3% oftheH.S,-'seniors (public) continuetheir.education_ (Table.4) 'The poteworthy finding is that this percentage ' peaked in 1970 and ,is now declining.-' The !lumber of actual- and projeablupublic H.S. graduates continuing is es Ac a141,972 - 25,773CProjected 1976 - Trojected 1980 - 01,000 and Projected 1983 - 28,450.. 4 Private and parochial high schools currently graduate aRikroximaely/6,000 students each year. In the past two years, for which data are available, the.continuation rate for white graduates averaged,49% and blacks 30% (Table 4). The U.S. Office of Education estimate hat nationally 90- 95% of the fall first-time college enterg class is composed ofthe June H.S. 'graduate's and that thes groups will "-decline in 1976-78.Contrary to this national trend, UMBC fall first-time entering Classes in 1971.-74 contained 66% June ,H.S. graduates (Table 61. Almost 13% of our entering class transfer from comMunity colleges (Table 6),,while e state. wide community college system indicates a state 'wi t Associate of Arts transfer rate of 6% (Table 7). In Fal 1972 there were 3,006 Maryland AA transfers, UMBC attic ted 265 (8.8%) of the available market segment. -2- A survey of all Maryland CommOnity Collegesconducted in May,1973 (Table 7) revealed that the median age was 22 while 48% of their students were,:over 22 yearsold. -This means'that almost half of the students are beyond the age normally associated with graduation from afour- :year college or university. Our own demographic data reveal a median age of 22 while 26% of our students are over 22 years old. Thepercentage over 22 years old by type of student is as follows: Readmits - 50%,Specials - 86%, Transfer Students - 47%, Freshmen - 5%. .Theolder Maryland resident and the community college transferis a significant source of students'for -UMBC. T = o s ity colleges project a 5% annual growth in enr llments hile the Regional Planning Council projects :a 20% growth in the J 15-24 years old population in the Baltimore SMgA by 198G t (Table 8,9). , With a market potential of 40,000 (25,000 H.S. senior 6,000 Private, 9,000 Transfer) state-wider what are the intervening factors in our attempts to attract more stuents? MARKET INTERVENING FACTORS. The market factors 'can be viewed bestin' the' context of the nationalend regional trends in-higher educat n and the constraints in the Maryland system (seeOar land Council and American Council-on Educ4tion inbibliog aphy). Nationally, private coXlege enrollment is declining ile public enrollment is shifting from full-time to pa't-time. '-t11 part-time (less-than-9 credit-hours) third we k rollment at UMBC for,the_last 3 years is as foll ws: 1972 - 6.'6%, 1973 - 7.9%, andt1974 - 12.0%. Spring part- time enrollment at UM for the last 3 years is as follows:' 1972 - 9.6%, 1973 - .0%, and 1974 - 12.3%. Dr. Garland. G. Parker, Vice .Prod st for Admissions andRecords at the University of Cincin tti, in his annual survey of enrollment, evealed that part7ti e enrollment in the 1416 institiutions in ased 5.9% to 22.6%. He noted that the community college part-time enrollment increased'20.6%in 1%73 to account for 58.3% of their enrollment. In-the national surveys less than 12 hours was thepart-time criterion. When the UMBC enrollment data are subjected to the 12-hour part-time criterion, over a third of our students were taking between 9 and-12 hours in 1972,,1973 and 1974 (see Tables Dl through.Di-2 in the UMBC Factbook). -3- Another factor to be considered is the impact of trans- fer and community college students (see Statewide Master Plan in bibliography). In 1971 transfer students comprised 27.1% of our students and in 1974 they comprie only 1,9.2% (Table 6). Transfelis from four-year colleges (4%) and College Park (7%) have remained in"proportion to our growth while our community college transfers have declined from 15% to 8% (Table, 6). Two factors account for this: first, the Statewide Master Plan policy that specifies that community college students cannot transfer to the University of Maryland until they have completed 60 hours; and second, the contention of many would-be transfers to UMBC that too many of the courses completed elsewhere could not be transferred to '\UMBC because they were unacceptable, If UMBC intends to- increase its shar,e ofthe community college market, which will constitute.a large share of .. those available,( and Dr, Gardner's survey indicates that 56% of these students are in the AA transfer programs) greater attention must be paid to the problems of the transfer student (see the definitive- articles by J. R. Hills and E.I. Holmstrqm). The State of Maryland Suffers from a statewide college student migration out:, of the state similar to the condition in 15 other states. The U.S. Office of Education reVealed in its Survey of Residence andMigration of College Students, -Fall 1968 and 1972, that Maryland was the fifth largest exporter-in the nation (35,324) in 1968 and the fourth la est in 1972 (39,300 estimate). Marylan has been attract- ing 20,000 to 25,000 out -of -state studentbut the net loss ach year*is 15,000. a national' surveyof enteringfreshmen, UMBC freshmen along with their counterparts state that 'academic reputation', 'low cost',°and 'special program offerings' were thefactors which influenced their decisions to attend a particular college Gable 101. In a 1973 survey of the college-bound Maryland H.S. seniors (55,000) the Maryland State Department of Education found that a third of the 23,000 respondents intended to attend an out-of-state college, a fourth of the in-state respondents would attend the University of Maryland, almost half would go to-community colleges, a sixth would go .to state colleges, and 7% would go to private colleges. In -4- of. their December follow-up survey of those actuallyenrolled, in 1970 through 1972, over 58% werein/four-year colleges or universitiesand 30% were in community colleges (Table 121. There were wide disparities in the number wishing toattend out-of=state schools. In all the more urban affluent counties, except Baltimore City, 20% to -30% of thestudents wanted to attend out-of-state schools(table 11). Those who can afford an alternative t9 thearyland system' -express a desire toattend school in Cher status.' A review ofthe college preferences of Marylandcollege- bound H.S. seniors who took the CollegeBoard exams last '.year indicate that the'Universitiet-of Virginia, Delaware, Penn State, and Duke were the top attractions (Table 13). Informal.