Applications to YSU more than double last year's

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

It doesn’t equal enrollment, but the number of prospective freshmen who have applied to Youngstown State University for next fall is more than double the number of freshman applicants at this time in 2014.

The number of freshmen admitted so far this year for fall 2015 is more than 70 percent higher than for fall 2014 at this time last year, too.

Gary D. Swegan, associate vice president for enrollment planning and management at YSU, presented the figures recently to university trustees’ Academic Quality and Student Success Committee.

Last fall, 2,593 freshmen had applied to YSU by mid-February 2014 and 1,981 had been admitted. As of last week, those numbers were 5,796 and 3,375, respectively, for fall 2015.

The university has widened its recruitment efforts, and Swegan and President Jim Tressel have traveled to various schools.

“We picked schools outside of our top service region,” Swegan said.

The recruiting events were at schools in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula and other counties. YSU’s top service region is Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

Swegan also noted increases in scholarships awarded, reservations for YSU’s student orientation, advisement and registration events and the number of transfer students who have applied and been admitted compared with a year ago.

YSU’s enrollment has been on a decline since 2011, and the university is trying to curb the loss.

YSU’s fall 2014 enrollment was a 6.3 percent decline from fall 2013. For this spring, it decreased 4 percent compared with spring 2014, but university officials view it as a positive because the spring decline was less than that for fall.

One strategy the university is trying is the hiring of Royall & Company of Richmond, Va., a direct-marketing student-recruitment company. YSU hired the company with a one-year contract for $300,000.

There are 12,315 YSU students this semester compared with 12,823 in spring 2014.