News from COSC: Enrollment Soars

Charter Oak State College announced in its "Connections" newsletter that enrollment for the fall of 2001 was 55% higher than it was for the fall of 2000. It attributes the rise in enrollment to the addition of new online courses and accelerated eight-week courses.

It seems to me that a 55% jump in enrollment over the period of a year is pretty substantial. It makes me wonder how much more of the potential DL market is left to be reached. I think that there must especially be a lot of interest in the accelerated courses as many students seem to be looking for quick ways to get college credit.

Tracy <><

 

I think there is a good chance that our own Lawrie Miller's web page is responsible for part of that increase.

 

There is a trend in education and that is when the economy tightens enrollment in education will rise. It is acyclical -- so I would guess with the layoffs and potential for layoffs more workers are interested in pursuing their degree to be more competitive. In the adult world, COSC, TESC, and Excelsior become outstanding choices due to the low cost.

John

 

55% increase may or may not be good. A 55% increase from WHAT? Increasing from 11 to 17 students would be a 55% increase, for example. So until they provide some additional information, I'll remain skeptical of these kinds of numbers.

Bob

 

Keep in mind that Charter Oak's student population has historically been much, much smaller than Edison or Excelsior... but they're quite reputable and well known at least among DL enthusiasts, so I have no reason to doubt their claim. Actually, I think that the kind of increase they're talking about is quite plausible... I have no idea what their current enrollment is, but if, for example, they had a total enrollment of, say, 600 students and got typically 200 new students per year, it's entirely possible that they could have had increased that to 300 odd students...

 

I'm not questioning the reputation of COSC. I think very highly of the school and their programs. I'm just saying that giving only percentages without specific quantities (numbers of students), I think it's premature to get excited about a 55% increase.

Bob

 

Hmmm. A increase of 55% in a program whether we are dealing with a program size of 6 or 600 is a large increase. All the Colleges around where I am are reporting large increases but not that large.

 

It's hard to make any assumptions about their enrollment without more information. While enrollment for Fall 2001 may have been up 55% over that of Fall 2000, it could (hypothetically) be the case that enrollment for Fall 2001 is 25% lower than that of Fall 1999. Maybe Fall of 2000 was a particularly slow time, who knows? Hopefully the increase will continue as a trend.