are there identifiable trends among matriculating students by major by geographic region and by placement test scores that suggest specific strengths or weaknesses in our programs data was gathered for matriculating undergraduate freshmen and for transfer students for each department over the period 2000 2004 see appendices 1 and 2 data was gathered for the same two groups and organized by county within pennsylvania and by state over the same period see appendices 3 and 4 only a few nearby states were counted separately; the rest were grouped under other states data for all three campuses and data for normal admissions honors college and learning enhancement center are combined in these analyses only students in undergraduate bachelor s degree programs are considered; associate degree general studies and graduate students are not counted three analysis methods are used to detect trends based on major department and location county state 1. three year averaging averages for 2000 2002 2001 2003 and 2002 2004 were calculated for each department and county those departments counties with a 5% or greater compounded growth rate over the periods were rated as having an up trend those with a 5% or greater compounded decline were rated as down between these ranges no rating was given and matriculation was regarded as steady 2. linear regression a linear regression was performed for each department s or county s five year matriculation numbers if the slope of the linear regression was greater than 0 103 the department county trend was rated up if the slope was less than 0 103 the department county trend was rated down between these ranges no rating was given and matriculation was regarded as steady note: a slope of 0 103 is consistent with 5% growth 3. five year change this was simply the difference between the raw matriculation numbers in 2004 and 2000 for each department and county the three analysis methods are fairly consistent in the trends they indicate many of the up down matriculation trends for departments have generally recognized explanations nursing has had a surge the last few years based on the demand for health care; the natural science pre professional increase is primarily due to the new pre pharmacy program also health related computer science and mis have declined substantially influenced by the loss of popularity of technology fields due to the com crash and outsourcing these trends are driven by public reaction to news about the associated job markets unfortunately public reaction has overshot the mark; the job prospects in technology are much brighter than the matriculation trend would indicate the extreme drop in elementary and special education is primarily due to higher entry standards for these students human development and environmental science has had increases in several programs interior design and fashion merchandising have had the most influence ; these gains might be attributed to a greater public consciousness of aesthetics we can speculate that the increase for journalism is related to the expansion in television news channels; but we have no evidence of that the up down transfer trends by departments are approximately the same as the trends for matriculating freshmen the transfer trends are a less pronounced except in education because of the smaller numbers of students involved the five year changes are mostly single digit numbers at least three pennsylvania counties identified as having down trends in matriculating freshmen are significant: philadelphia clearfield and somerset clearfield s and somerset s downward changes may be the beginning of the demographic shift toward lower numbers of high school graduates in western pa many other nearby counties allegheny armstrong indiana cambria and fayette have lower matriculation numbers in recent years; but the drop is not enough to label these counties as down philadelphia s downward trend is important because it is a source of many minority students; a drop in matriculating students there is a cause for concern for maintaining diversity philadelphia s drop is partially offset by increases in matriculations from bucks and lycoming counties and to a lesser degree in chester and montgomery counties increases in students matriculating from ohio and virginia are the result of tuition discounts no cause is known for the increase from other states outside of pennsylvania the numbers of transfer students by location has been nearly flat for all locations both inside and outside the state; see appendix 4 the only clear trend in transfers is that international transfers are increasing although the number of international matriculating freshmen is decreasing data from 2000 2004 was gathered to identify numbers of students offered admission by department and county and numbers of students who paid their admission deposit on time by department and county data for all three campuses data for normal admissions honors college and learning enhancement center are combined in these analyses the purpose in gathering the data is to determine if there are any detectable changes in the entering student population as they go through the admissions process: application admission deposit monetary commitment matriculation appendices 5 through 9 show the results appendix 5 shows a calculation of yield the percentage of students who matriculated of those that were offered admission this is calculated for each department for each year 2000 04 and then a 5 year yield is calculated there is a great deal of uniformity across departments especially in the 5 year yield; nearly all departments are near the 40% average those rated high are more than 1 333 standard deviations above average; those rated low are more than 1 333 standard deviations below average safety science has an exceptionally high yield perhaps because of the program s reputation a cause of the low yield for biology or the high yield for mis is not known appendix 5 and appendix 6 which measures transfer students yield show that yield is not dependent on major appendices 7 and 8 show the calculation of yield for each county and state again yield was calculated for each year and for the 5 year span here we can see some significant variations the matriculating freshmen 5 year yield for all of pennsylvania is 38% while the 5 year yield for out of state students is 19% see appendix 7 the same rating system for high and low yields used for departments is also used for matriculating freshmen by location the transfer student 5 year yield for all of pennsylvania is 66% while the 5 year yield for out of state students is 29% see appendix 8; there is no rating for transfers because of the small numbers there are several counties which have relatively high yields of matriculating freshmen; these are armstrong indiana jefferson and somerset it is natural that students from these nearby counties should be more prone to follow through on admission there are several counties with relatively low yields: philadelphia monroe and to a lesser extent bucks in fact the yields for the southeastern counties are much closer to the yields for out of state students than to the in state average for out of state matriculating freshmen there is a clear distinction between those from states which have an associated tuition discount ohio west virginia virginia and those from states with no discount this may mean that financial incentives for students from southeastern pa could increase their yield in a similar way the yields for transfer students are significantly greater than the yields for comparable groups of matriculating freshmen by location this is to be expected transfer students generally are more mature and have had a chance to think more seriously about what they want the numbers for individual counties and states even the 5 year yields are too small to give an accurate reading with respect to location appendix 9 demonstrates the predictive accuracy and aggregate relationships of numbers of admissions paid deposits and matriculations for pa residents 40 42% of those offered freshmen admission pay a deposit and 36 38% enter; for out of state residents 21 23% of those offered freshmen admission pay a deposit and 18 21% enter if admission standards are to be maintained then there are several obvious possibilities for increasing enrollment 1 reach more quality students where they are eastern and southeastern pa get them to apply to iup there seems to be a rough inverse relationship between distance from iup and yield advertisement marketing is needed if more quality students apply they will likely be admitted and even if the percentages above remain unchanged the numbers of matriculating students will increase 2 find a way to convince more of those admitted to pay the admission deposit financial incentives have worked for out of state students; this suggests that discounts or scholarships can be used to attract some of the distant in state students we have to assume that every student has been admitted to other universities besides iup; we must make iup more attractive more inviting more friendly than the other universities some specific actions in this regard are already part of the admissions business plan 3 for out of state students developing discount agreements for more adjacent states maryland new york new jersey should push the yield percentages for these states closer to that of in state students appendix 9 also shows that the relationships between admissions offered deposits paid and matriculation for transfer students although the numbers are more volatile than for entering freshmen there is still a reasonable consistency for pa resident 67% of those offered transfer admission pay a deposit and 66% enter iup for out of state residents about 39% of those offered transfer admission pay a deposit and 30% enter the third recommendation above should help the out of state transfer numbers too appendices 10 and 11 show that the trends by department and by location are consistent regardless of whether we count admissions paid deposits or matriculation for incoming freshmen this would indicate that there is no failure in the admissions process with respect to students choosing a particular major or originating from a particular area this would suggest that whatever steps are taken to improve the admissions process will apply across the board and have a beneficial effect in all areas all of the location information from the appendices continues to portray iup as primarily a regional university as still relying on western pennsylvania as the source for most of its students although every county in the state is represented in the matriculating students the sources of matriculating students are not consistent with where the majority of potential students are in the state although iup has students from forty or more states and many other countries the non pa resident student population remains very small assuming the predicted demographic changes in high school graduates are correct greater efforts at recruiting students from more distant areas are needed marketing of iup must be expanded; more admissions counselors are needed; some of the recommendations given above need to be adopted additional recommendation: ask each department to specify to admissions an ideal number for matriculating freshmen for those departments with a substantial number of transfer students those departments should also specify an ideal transfer number admissions can use this information to determine if they are reaching or exceeding the target numbers although admissions does not currently target their recruitment efforts by major knowing what the departments want can help identify groups of potential students to which more attention could be paid how are potential students informed about iup its expectations its programs and its admission and placement process typically potential students begin to learn about iup through the materials given to them by admissions counselors during high school visits or college fairs this material includes a prospectus listing programs by college a list of phone numbers e mail addresses and web sites for departments basic information on financial aid and an admission application generally admissions counselors have barely enough time to distribute this material and to hand out and collect inquiry cards from the students before they have to move on to another school although the materials provide a beginning for students to learn about iup they also push onto the prospective students the task of finding out more this can be an acceptable result if the materials the students are given are sufficient to peak their interest and if finding out more can be easy it is probably difficult to grab a student s interest with only the prospectus and related material there needs to be a follow up that is both factual and friendly using approaches such as the following 1 a program related packet should be sent to every student who fills out an inquiry card recommended contents of the packet include a department brochure which outlines each program offered and distinguishes between them a curriculum handout that gives a more in depth information about programs offered a faq frequently asked questions page dealing with the questions that department chairs often get from visiting students questions such as what s the difference between a bs and a ba what jobs are available after graduation will i be able to get the classes i need how many students are in your department should be addressed a letter from the department chairperson inviting subsequent questions a brief description of anything that is unique or interesting in the program and citations of successful graduates a dorm floor brochure if there is an associated dorm floor a brief description of any clubs or non class activities directed at majors in the department s programs information about the admissions process 2 a web site should be maintained that contains all the material in #1 and additional information about courses programs the faculty and the facilities of the department in which interest is expressed give the url to the students 3 a campus life web site needs to be maintained where students can get a virtual tour of campus and find out about the extracurricular opportunities at iup much of this site already exists but is split between the center for student life and admissions; it needs to be consolidated give the url to the students 4 a web site that addresses the questions and issues of parents should be maintained actually it is mostly in place already the url needs to be given to the student s parents efforts must be made to keep this information current some students or their parents take the initiative and contact individual department chairpersons or the admissions office on campus to find out about iup these get more personal attention and probably more program related information now but the content varies considerably from one department to another the materials listed above under #1 should be the standard handout to which a department may add other materials several of the recommendations above suggest web site improvements because more and more students rely on the web as a primary source of information it is critical that the iup web site be made more user friendly the search engine is all but useless and the link structure needs to be rethought from a customer student point of view much of what is there now is oriented toward current faculty and staff use it is not inviting to prospective students or their parents; it forces a lot of navigation to get to the information they want