Enrollment

[HighlandsApp]

The best thing that the university can do to help Boone traffic is to add an 5th new dorm building where Gardner/Coltrane are/were. The replacement project only adds 500 new beds. The dorm construction/number of on campus beds over the last 30 years has not kept up with student population growth.

This fall East Hall was not planned to be used but it is currently full of students.

My first three were able to live the first two years on campus but my youngest was not.

How much longer will East be used?

That's a good question. Right now Bowie, Eggers in East or full of students. All three are supposed to be torn down when the fourth new dorm building opens next fall with 750 beds. But there are 850 beds being used now. More Sophomores and other upper classmen are wanting to live on campus then they are beds available for them for the last couple of years.

Another four to 500 bed dorm where Coltrane and Gardener sit now make a lot more sense than that being a parking lot.

When the 700 car parking garage beside of Peacock Hall gets built they'll be plenty of room for cars.

[AppfaninCAALand]

App State announces a record-breaking enrollment of 20,641 students in fall 2021 — the largest enrollment to date — which includes historic numbers of first-year and underrepresented students.

No wonder the traffic seemed even worse than I remember when I was in Boone during the first week of school earlier this month.

My wife is not an App grad and had never been to Boone on a "school day" before this recent visit. She was shocked at how much traffic there was.

[NewApp]

The best thing that the university can do to help Boone traffic is to add an 5th new dorm building where Gardner/Coltrane are/were. The replacement project only adds 500 new beds. The dorm construction/number of on campus beds over the last 30 years has not kept up with student population growth.

This fall East Hall was not planned to be used but it is currently full of students.

My first three were able to live the first two years on campus but my youngest was not.

How much longer will East be used?

Until they run out of pot.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I know we want to grow, but I don't know how the town can keep handling the growth.

That is a great concern. IMOp it is the most important concern.

At some point Boone and the university will have grown to the point it does indeed lose its small town/college town charm. Chapel Hill is that way now. There are worse things and I think we have a decade or more before that happens. If the growth is small, as in a few hundred a year then it should be manageable and that would put 25,000 enrollment out about a decade. At that point 25,000 may seem just as manageable as 20,000 is now, as long as a few buildings are added to campus and that may mean building in areas that are not campus owned currently. UNCG is expanding into residential areas now across Gate City Blvd. Maybe App needs to start buying land now while it is cheaper than it likely will be in a decade.

Also population bubbles may change college and university demand and this growth stops or even contracts a bit. I think App was just shy of 12,000 when I graduated in 1992. They have projections for what enrollment was going to be for a few years out, and it was almost flat looking at the Fact Book for that year. I think it grew more than projected. At least students want to be part of the App family.

I am just glad App is in demand and we are not WCU. They are not growing and not because they are that selective. There are a lot worse problems to have than growth and increased demand.

I believe WCU has more than 12000 or so students as of 2021. They were at around 6500 in the 90s when we were at around 12-13000. I’m sure the NC Promise affordable tuition program contributes to that.

WCU fell back under 12,000 this year it seems.

https://higheredworks.salsalabs.org/202 ... 11fef77879

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

More details about UNC system enrollment. App looking good with top three growth. WCU suffering, even with the cheaper tuition through the Promise program. UNCA having a hard go and they are smaller than I thought. UNCG also falling under 20,000 and I think this is two years in a row of decline.

https://higheredworks.salsalabs.org/202 ... 11fef77879