Ohio University received nearly 21,000 applications to its Athens campus this year, the highest number in OU's history.
Whether they know it yet or not, this year’s incoming freshmen broke a record before their classes even started.
20,957 students applied to Ohio University’s Athens campus this year, which is the highest number of applications OU has ever received.
“Last year at the same day (May 27) we were at 20,889 so we are up 68 applications,” said Craig Cornell, vice provost for Enrollment Management.
Out of those students that applied this year, 15,516 have been admitted, according to Cornell. While this number isn’t officially final, this is a slight drop from last year’s freshman admittance, which was 15,548.
Last year’s freshman class had 4,377 students, the largest in OU’s history. The enrollment number for the incoming freshman class will not be determined until classes have started.
"When many universities are holding on or going down in student enrollment, we're going up," President Roderick McDavis said last August after enrollment numbers were released.
There is no limit as to how many people can apply to OU each year, Cornell said.
“Our goal is not simply grow applications,” Cornell said. “Our work is to shape a class that we know meets the goals of the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan and to shape the freshman class with the right balance of students that we know will be successful at OHIO.”
Applications to OU have been on the rise in recent years. In 2011, the university received over 13,000 applications and saw a spike the next year when over 17,000 students applied in 2012.
“This year is our fifth straight increase and fourth straight record breaking year with applications,” Cornell said. “However, the growth is tapering to smaller numbers each year, which we are fine with.”
According to a previous Post report, last year’s freshman class was so large that Residential Housing did not have enough room to house all students.
Because of this, some students were assigned live in rooms with resident assistants when they first moved onto campus. Housing also converted triples being used as doubles back to full capacity as triples to help with the room shortage.
Currently, four new dorms and a learning commons are close to being completed on South Green. This project is set to be completed by mid-July and the dorms are on track to be ready for Fall Semester, according to a previous Post report.
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