ISU releases 10-day enrollment numbers for fall semester
Idaho State University released its numbers for 10th-day enrollment. Enrollment for fall 2016 is 11,025.
That’s a 2.1% decrease from fall 2015.
The biggest decline came from the number of international students. The number dropped 36 percent, accounting for a loss of 513 international students.
At about $10,500 per semester for non-resident students, that’s at least an $11 million loss in tuition for ISU.
Because cultural missions for some international students only allow so many students in certain programs, ISU’s international programs are full. So ISU said it expected the drop.
“These kinds of fluctuations are not unusual in international student populations,” said Laura Woodworth-Ney, executive vice president and provost for ISU. “But certainly, it’s something that we’re watching very carefully and working with the cultural missions to manage. It was the incoming student number that was significantly lower. Our recurring student population maintained most of its students.”
But even though international enrollment was down, other areas did see improvement.
The number of in-state Idaho residents increased by 2.6% this semester. That’s close to $2 million in added tuition.
“It’s very exciting. We’re very happy to see that,” Woodworth-Ney said. “We’re also very happy that some of our pipeline programs that are designed to get more students into college in general, statewide, are working and showing progress.”
The university also saw a slight increase in students from some of the surrounding counties, like Franklin and Oneida.
Other non-resident students, that are not international, increased by 4.8%.
At 1.7%, undergraduate transfer students saw a slight increase also.
ISU said these numbers are just a 10-day snapshot, not final enrollment numbers. Official enrollment numbers will be given to the Idaho State Board of Education on Census Day, which is Oct. 15. ISU said between 10th-day enrollment and Census Day, it usually gains around 1,800 additional students.
