For this incoming class, the university set a strategic goal to accept 1,150 first time in college (FTIC) freshman. Now, those numbers are confirmed with a grand total of 1,563 including 300 transfers, and 1,271 FTIC students.
President Hanbury has told undergraduate admissions that he wants a 15 percent growth of enrolled students each academic year and for this year that percentage was surpassed at 28 percent of FTIC’s, 18 percent for out-of-state and 23 percent in international students. Anthony DeNapoli, interim executive dean of undergraduate admissions, explained that as the amount of students enrolled has increased, so has the quality of the students.
Most of the students maintained high academic excellence in their high school careers and as Hanbury pointed out at the most recent convocation, this incoming class “is the highest profile students.”
“I see more focused students, more community-oriented students and [they] want to be engaged and be involved on campus,” said DeNapoli.
According to Peter Littlefield, associate dean of undergraduate admissions, the more academically engaged students are continuing to choose NSU over the competition both within the state of the florida and from other states, whether that’s domestic students across the country or international students.
The philosophy undergraduate admissions is to recruit and attract students that are the right fit for NSU and help them along the way through their academic career.
“The relationship between [the recruit and admissions] is important. We encourage staff to reach out to students they’ve talked to. A lot of places you can go you can get lost [as a freshman]. But [at NSU] we provide students with career development, an excel advisor, and academic advisor to help them along the way,” said DeNapoli.
Along with these advisors to help students through their college experience the undergraduate admissions staff believes that the new NSU brand campaign will encourage students to make NSU one of their top choices for a college education.
“Branding is important because it also sets us apart [from other universities]. It creates a identity to explain who we are. We honestly believe that students who come here have an “edge”. Which is why NSU created this brand campaign to push [that mentality],” said DeNapoli.
The programs and opportunities that NSU provides to students set the university apart as well. Dual admission, razor’s edge, experiential learning and other similar programs available to all students from their freshman year is what makes the university believe they give students that edge in their future. Even though the university has gotten bigger, the class sizes are to remain the same with roughly 17 students per course.
“The intimate learning environment is integral to the learning environment to all the programs that we promote here,” said Littlefield.
The first year seminar course for this year is also different. Last year, the first year seminar course or UNIV, was specialized where each class had a theme specifically organized by the professor. This year however, there have been some standardization of the curriculum in the courses but there is still an opportunity for individual faculty members to make the course more personalized. In these courses, every faculty member has a student peer leader— sophomore and junior students— teaching with them who support the faculty in the class.
Next year, undergraduate admissions plans to increase their enrollment by another 15 percent in accordance with future plans and advancements for NSU.
