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Friday,
January 30, 2004
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Enrollment
limit boosts selectivity
Capped
enrollment has proved to be a positive move toward TCU’s
admission standards.
By
Ferrell Fields
Since
capping enrollment, TCU has raised its enrollment standards
in order to maintain a high quality learning environment,
university officials said.
While more than 9,000 students are expected to apply to
TCU for next fall, only 1,600 students can be admitted,
Dean of Admissions Ray Brown said.
TCU has been ranked the second most selective school in
Texas, Brown said. TCU’s capped enrollment has played
a part in the increased selectivity of incoming students.
Registrar Pat Miller said this past enrollment year, TCU
received 7,654 applications and only 1,596 students were
admitted. Since fall 2000, the number of applications
has increased steadily from 4,800 applications.
There is a strategic planning effort within the university
to examine all aspects of TCU to determine whether we
go up or down in size, Miller said.
Brown said that while higher high school GPA’s and
standardized test scores are expected, a student must
exhibit other characteristics that cannot be measured.
“One of the most important things in the selection
process is something that is less quantifiable such as
diversity. By diversity, I mean the different life experiences
students can bring to TCU,” Brown said. “This
is what makes TCU the institution it is today.”
Brown said the student body was growing at a rate in which
the campus could not accommodate.
“There has been an opinion that bigger is not always
better, it’s just bigger,” Brown said.
Freshman music major Libby Archer said she chose TCU because
of its size and academic reputation.
“It has the atmosphere of a small university but
is big enough that you don’t feel secluded from parts
of the university,” she said.
Miller said since capping enrollment in 2002, the number
of freshman core classes offered have increased.
The residence halls also did a better job of planning
further in advance for the freshman class so there were
no surprises. The overflow in housing was due in part
by students not meeting the housing deadline.
“In my fourth year at TCU, I have never heard of
an institution experiencing what TCU is experiencing,”
Brown said. |
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