UL enrollment remains steady amid tougher standards 9/19/12

Nicholas Persac, The Advertiser, September 19, 2012

Tougher admission standards didn’t stop students from enrolling at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The school announced Tuesday it has only about 200 fewer students this fall than during the past academic year.

"We projected that as our academic standards increased, we would see a decline in the number of eligible students," DeWayne Bowie, UL’s vice president for enrollment management, said in a news release Tuesday. "The decline was less than projected. While our freshman class is a little smaller than last year, this class represents the most academically talented class that we have ever enrolled."

For the fall semester, 16,687 students are enrolled at UL, compared to 16,885 students last year, marking an overall loss of only 198 students, according to the UL news release. The class of 2016 includes 2,728 students who are first-time freshmen, down from last year’s 2,966.According to the news release, UL’s number of transfer and re-entry students decreased by 209, but that loss was offset by an increase of 272 who are new graduate students and dual-enrolled students, plus better retention of undergraduates.

"Enrolling better-prepared students will improve our student retention and graduation rates," UL President Joseph Savoie said in the release."We are very excited about our freshman class. We think that our dynamic university programs, our focus on excellence in everything we do and amenities like our brand new residence halls will continue to attract bright students to UL Lafayette."