Courtesy Photo: State-of-the-art classrooms in the newly remodeled McDaniel hall welcomed students to the spring semester at Adams State
Julie Waechter
PR Department
A 13 percent increase in graduate students is fueling a 5 percent overall increase in Adams State’s enrollment for the spring 2012 semester, compared to last spring. This marks the tenth consecutive semester in which the college achieved enrollment growth, according to Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Program Development Michael Mumper.Total enrollment this spring is 2,909, including 828 graduate students.
Adams State’s biggest graduate program is the online master’s in Counselor Education, which now enrolls 452 students. The MA in Higher Education Administration & Leadership (HEAL) nearly doubled its enrollment, to 32; while the MA in Humanities – history emphasis, increased by half, to 30 students. A new MA in music education that begins next fall brings the college’s master’s degree programs to a total of nine.
“Another positive point is that undergraduate students have increased their average credit load,” Mumper added. “We have been encouraging students to take at least 15 credits each semester, in order to graduate within four years.” While on-campus undergraduate enrollment grew by 2 percent, the total number of student credit hours grew by more than 4 percent.
The top three undergraduate majors are business administration (376), human performance & physical education (213), and nursing (178), all of which have grown significantly since last year.
New freshman persisted from the fall to spring semesters by nearly 83 percent, slightly above last spring’s rate.
Hispanic students account for 32 percent of on-campus undergraduates, and about 15 percent represent other racial or ethnic minority groups. Fifty-five percent of the undergraduate student body is female.
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