Penn State sees enrollment decline at commonwealth campuses, boost at University Park
While overall enrollment at Penn State remained mostly flat this year, University Park and underrepresented minority groups saw increases and commonwealth campuses saw declines in enrollment.
Total enrollment at all Penn State campuses, including Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport and World Campus, this fall is at 96,408, down from 97,136 last fall.
Despite early indications that international student enrollment at Penn State would be down this year, enrollment actually increased slightly for international students attending the University Park campus, from 7,366 last year to 7,636.
But while University Park remained a popular choice for students, with a 1% increase in enrollment from 46,270 to 46,723, Penn State commonwealth campuses saw a 3.2% decline, from 28,861 to 27,939, in enrollment since 2018.
Every commonwealth campus except for Schuykill, Lehigh Valley and Great Valley — which only provides graduate programs — saw a decrease in enrollment. Penn State Behrend in Erie saw the biggest decline, with a net decrease of 204 students.
Penn College also saw a significant decline in enrollment, going from 5,452 students last fall to 4,981 this fall, due in part to not counting non-degree enrollments in high school programs.
“As the state’s sole land-grant institution, we continue to see it as our duty to provide Pennsylvanians across the state the opportunity to access an affordable, high-quality education,” said Rob Pangborn, vice president and dean for undergraduate education, in a press release. “One of the great advantages of Penn State is that we have a campus within driving distance of nearly every Pennsylvania resident, where students can have a transformative educational experience without having to journey far from home.”
The percentage of students in the incoming class of undergraduate students who self-identify as an underrepresented minority (Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Native Alaskan or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) grew by 21% at University Park, according to a university release. Overall, students from underrepresented minorities (including Asians, who sometimes are not counted as underrepresented) represent 20.2% of the University Park population, which is up from 19.7% last year, according to the Penn State Fact Book. Both graduate and undergraduate international students now make up 16.3% of the University Park population.
“We believe this significant increase in students from underrepresented minority groups was fueled in part by Penn State’s heightened visibility to high school students via the Common Application, which Penn State introduced in fall 2018 as an added option for applicants,” said Pangborn in the release.
He also pointed to Penn State’s increased recruitment among these groups and initiatives like the Educational Equity Scholarships program and the Millenium Scholars program, both of which offer financial aid to applicants from underrepresented minority groups.
World Campus also saw a slight increase in enrollment, from 14,458 last year to 14,687 this year, with increases in both undergraduate and graduate programs.
Data also shows that among undergraduates, Pennsylvania residents still make up a 58% majority at Penn State’s University Park campus, and enjoy an 81.9% majority among commonwealth campus undergraduates.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Penn State sees enrollment decline at commonwealth campuses, boost at University Park."
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