Column:
Obnoxious freshman surplus due to rising enrollment
Published Nov. 18, 2008
It seems to upperclassmen that every year the freshman class at MU gets larger and somehow more naive to the way we do things around here. You can see their antics on campus if you watch closely, and they are very apparent at athletic events all year round.
I've wondered on many occasions if I was as annoying and boisterous when I was a freshman. In retrospect, the answer I find is a profound yes; and to be honest, we were all just as vexing. So, while they might not be getting more obnoxious, it leaves one to wonder. Are these young ones pulling a Michael Keaton from Multiplicity and making more of themselves? Yes, and the figures are startling.
Chalk it up the football team, the new Reynolds Journalism Institute or our Big 12 champion women's soccer team. But, according to the very regally titled Office of the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management (or for those of a simpler ilk, the person who takes in everyone's applications), MU has increased its freshmen applicants from the fall application numbers of last year by 48.8 percent. And, if I haven't scared everyone off yet, the enrollment number - those already accepted who will most likely be attending - well, that's up 45 percent.
It seems that MU has a Tiger procreation epidemic on their hands. My only question is: Where are they going to put them all?
There is a 54-percent increase in transfer applications, non-residents are up 75 percent and applicants from the state of Illinois alone have nearly doubled, as that rate has increased 89.8 percent. Texas is bringing in a 63-percent increase.
But what's most interesting thing about these numbers? Most are just following a trend.
And while the raw number of freshmen and new students is staggering, two key demographics are really booming. MU's applications from African-American students have gone up 146 percent since last year and experienced a 300-percent increase over a two-year period. Applications from Hispanic students have come in at a rate 116 percent higher this year as compared to in 2007. For a school that champions a world-class education, it's vital to have diversity, so I for one am very glad that the numbers are so staggering in this category. MU has enough white kids to go around already.
So what could make this increase so dramatic? Why this newfound desire to be a Tiger at MU? I think it's the price of gas in Columbia. $1.79 is too good a deal to pass up, even if it will be $4 again before we can blink. Others think that it's the football team and the national recognition that our school receives from kicking the ass of teams like University of Illinois and University of Nebraska on national TV. But wouldn't the subsequent losses to a 40-year-old man and Texas, also on national TV, negate those?
I don't know. Pass me another beer. Enrollment is up.
Hey, maybe it's our tailgating grandeur that sealed the deal for visiting students. That has to be it.
And while the report makes it very clear that these recruitment numbers are not conclusive, I believe it is just the Office of the Vice Provost for Enrollment Management being modest. They've always been that way.
These numbers show that MU, once forgotten, is now one of the most recognizable and desirable schools in the Midwest. In fact, the report states, "Mizzou is the only public institution in the Big XII who's application numbers are currently up." This means two things: Baylor University is looking good on enrollment, and we beat the University of Kansas in something else. At this point, though, beating those galoshes-wearing Chickenhawks is just too easy.
