Enrollment is down by about 2 percent at Otterbein for the 2013 fall semester. According to Jefferson Blackburn-Smith, the vice president for Enrollment Management, there are 2,919 students enrolled this fall, which is 65 fewer than last year.
There has long been a discussion among the Otterbein community about the importance of the freshman class every year at Otterbein because they often shape the trends and can sometimes predict future enrollment patterns. Last year’s freshman class had 85 students less than the class that entered in 2011. To counter this, however, there are now 575 new freshman, an 11-person increase from last year.
Otterbein’s out-of-state enrollment jumped an extra 19 students, elevating that number by almost a third. Blackburn-Smith added that the incoming class shows promising signs of academic ability, with a slightly increased average ACT score of 23.7, as compared to 23.6 from the previous class, while most other academic factors have stayed the same, including an average 3.5 GPA.
Blackburn-Smith said a drop in transfer students appears to be the most noticeable reason for why Otterbein’s enrollment has lessened this year. This fall, the university has 118 transfer students as opposed to 140 last fall. This decrease is speculated, according to Blackburn-Smith, to be because fewer students are interested in the education and nursing majors, which are two common areas of interest for transfer students. “We (typically) get a significant number of transfer students,” Blackburn-Smith said. The transfer dynamic proves, however, to be a two-way street. “We have kids transferring to Ohio State, we (also) get kids transferring from Ohio State.”
Otterbein currently holds a 76.4 percent retention rate, which is a 0.3 percent increase from the year prior. When analyzing retention rates, the university looks at brand new, full-time, first-time freshman. Not everyone is counted in that number, such as transfer and part-time students. At the end of every year, the university compares how many of those original students return for their sophomore year.
By 2020, Otterbein hopes to have an 82 percent retention rate, and the university is moving in the right direction, according to Blackburn-Smith. A strategic enrollment plan was accepted by the board of trustees last spring that pays special attention to who is being recruited and how students are supported once they get here. This ultimately is intended to improve Otterbein’s graduate rate.
“Some students leave because we asked them to; because they were not academically successful,” Blackburn-Smith said. “If they have a 2.0 (GPA), it’s very difficult for them to transfer to another 4-year school. But most students drop out because of financial reasons.”
