University Times

Like the Pittsburgh campus, the regional campuses are enjoying recruiting success, both in numbers and quality of freshmen.

Admissions directors at the four regionals report high school class rankings of incoming freshmen up from this time last year, and all four show increases in applications.

On the Pittsburgh campus applications are up 11 percent this year, and 55 percent of the new freshmen rank in the top 20 percent of their high school graduating class, up from 47 percent a year ago. Average SAT scores are also up 19 points (University Times, June 11).

Jim Gyure, director of admissions at the Johnstown campus, attributes the regionals' recruiting success in part to a strong link with Pittsburgh's Admissions office. "We commend Betsy Porter [director of Pittsburgh Admissions] and her staff for having an intelligent plan in place," Gyure said. "A lot of what is working for Oakland is working for all of us. As recognition of Pitt's quality expands, it has good repercussions for the entire Pitt system."

Following is a breakdown of admissions information at the regional campuses.

Greensburg The projected enrollment for this fall's freshman class at the Greensburg campus is the largest in campus history.

The number of freshmen applying directly to UPG is up 18 percent, to 768, said John Sparks, director of Admissions and Financial Aid.

Last year 72 percent of applicants applying directly to Greensburg ranked in the top 60th percentile of their high school class; this year, 89 percent are in that category.

Seventy out-of-state students have applied directly to UPG, up from 37 last year, Sparks said.

Minority applications are down from 111 last year to 89 this year.

UPG also accepts referrals from the Pittsburgh campus. This year, Pittsburgh referred 1,391 students to Greensburg from Pittsburgh compared to 667 last year, an 109 percent increase.

Among 345 out-of-state referrals, 21 have paid deposits. Counting direct applications and referrals, out-of-state applicants represent 10 states.

The total number of students who have paid their matriculation fee to date is 441, which is the target for the campus and has allowed UPG to close admissions for this fall.

Johnstown UPJ reports 2,023 applicants to date. Freshman applications are up by 11.8 percent and transfer applications by 11.6 percent.

Admissions director Gyure said, "These are applicants who apply directly to Johnstown, who indicate Pitt-Johnstown as their first campus choice, or who wish to be considered at two campuses simultaneously, generally Pittsburgh and Johnstown. Based on our experience with summer application trends, we expect a year-end total of about 2,100 applications, which is a record number of fall applications at Pitt-Johnstown."

Minorities represent 8 percent of applications and 8.8 percent are applicants from out-of-state, increases of 49 and 40 percent, respectively.

"We anticipate about 2 percent of new students will be minority students and approximately 2 percent will be from outside Pennsylvania," Gyure said. "Our goal will be to get more of these groups to enroll in the future.

As of last week, 736 admitted freshmen have paid the UPJ matriculation fee. "Typically, that total will drop by a few, to our 720-730 target," Gyure said. "We anticipated a final count of 720, which is a modest increase of between 5 and 6 percent over last year. We had planned for that because we had a somewhat smaller freshman class last year. We had also targeted an incremental increase in engineering technology students, which it appears we will realize."

According to Gyure, 70 percent of applicants rank in the top half of their high school graduating class, up from 65 percent last year. Average SAT scores increased from 1007 last year to 1010 this year. More than 100 applicants scored 1200 or better on their SATs and rank in the top 10 percent of their class, making them eligible for the President's Scholars program, he said.

"Our President's Scholars are our top scholarship recipients," Gyure said. "We have 51 who have indicated they will enroll, up from 33 last year. Their average SAT score is 1276." Bradford At the Bradford campus, applications are up 28.8 percent from last year, from 573 to 738, and the number of students who have made deposits are up from 230 last year to 257, according to Michael Heater, director of Admissions and Enrollment Management. The campus has nearly reached its targeted freshman enrollment of 275, he said.

The quality of entering students is higher as well, Heater reported. Among applicants who have made deposits, the average SAT scores have gone from 999 to 1032, and the average high school class rankings have gone up from the top 48 percent last year to the top 31 percent this year. With a higher caliber of student, retention rates tend to improve, Heater said.

Minority applications jumped from 24 to 90 this year. Last year three minority students enrolled at UPB compared to 17 who already have made deposits for this year's freshman class. "We made a conscious decision to increase the number of under-represented students at Bradford," Heater said.

"We assigned an admissions staff member to this and expanded the recruitment area into eastern Pennsylvania and New York City. We also hosted a group here on campus last summer of 56 Upward-Bound high school students, sponsored by Temple, to expose them a little to college life. We plan to continue this type of special program each summer with Temple, and we have a group this year from Case Western in Cleveland."

Also significant is out-of-state recruiting success, according to Heater. "Like the Pittsburgh campus," he said, "we have broadened our reach, specifically by aggressively recruiting in New Jersey and northeast Ohio and relatively aggressively in western New York — Buffalo and Rochester — although the southern tier of New York has always been a prime recruiting area, since our campus is only five miles from the state line." An estimated 36 percent will be from outside Pennsylvania, up from 30 percent in the past few years, he said.

"We also expect about 75 transfer students, which has been steady-state for a few years, over and above the 275 freshmen. We're happy with that, because we've found that transfer students have a higher retention rate, and they tend to fill the spots in the upper classes that younger students may leave open," Heater said.

Titusville UPT reports a 64 percent increase in freshman class size, from 153 last year to a projected 240 this year.

According to Rob Kvidt, director of Admissions and Financial Aid, 213 students have made deposits, up 78 percent from last year at this time. Average SAT scores for these students is 955, up from 927 for last year's enrolled class; 36 percent were in the 60th percentile of their high school classes, up from 30 percent among last year's freshmen, he said.

Minority students account for 15 percent and out-of-state students 12 percent of those who have made deposits, up from 13 percent and 3 percent, respectively, of last year's freshmen.

Like Greensburg, the Titusville campus accepts referrals from Pittsburgh. Direct applications to Titusville are down from 279 to 241; referrals from Pittsburgh to Titusville are up from 366 last year to 1,251.

"There are a couple reasons for the large increase in the number of referrals directly to Titusville," Kvidt said. "Before this year, we shared referrals with Greensburg. Last year, we shared about 1,200 referrals, but only 366 of these met Titusville's but not Greensburg's admissions standards." By agreement, the two schools now accept direct referrals from Pittsburgh, Kvidt said. Coupled with the overall increase of applications at the Pittsburgh campus, Titusville referrals have increased.

"It's also true that more referrals are matriculating here — 159 so far, instead of the 30 or so we're used to — because of the success of Pitt generally," Kvidt said. "We've become a much more attractive option when the goal is to transfer to the Pittsburgh campus. Students who achieve a 2.5 grade point average over 24 credits at Titusville are automatically accepted as transfers to Pittsburgh, where most students really want to go, eventually.

"Originally, our goal was a class of 180, which would have been a big increase. We felt that was a good target based on past experience with how many shared referrals would matriculate here," Kvidt said.

"We're able to manage the larger number by re-converting three campus residence buildings that had been used for storage the last few years. We are well on our way toward our revised target goal of 240 freshmen, which puts us at capacity," he said.

This reflects a growth continuing trend, with an increase of admitted students of 37 percent during the previous three-year period (1995-97), he said.

–Peter Hart