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83,038 enrollment sets Penn State record
Sunday, November 24, 2002
By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State University's enrollment has continued a steady upward climb to a record 83,038 students.
But the total, 1.6 percent above last year, keeps the increase within the bounds Penn State wants to limit itself to -- "modest and controlled" growth, a university official told school trustees.
The numbers, released last week, cover enrollment at Penn State's 24 locations, from the main campus in University Park to its web of campuses to Dickinson School of Law and Hershey Medical Center.
The total keeps Penn State at 2.5 times the enrollment of the state's next-largest school, the University of Pittsburgh.
According to the tallies, two-thirds of Penn State's enrollment are undergraduate students. Pennsylvanians make up three-quarters of the student body. Three in four get financial assistance.
And more students are applying online.
Of the applications submitted in 2000, about 8 percent were made online. Last year, 45 percent of Penn State's 80,000 applicants applied online, and the share this year is running at 75 percent, John Romano, vice provost, told the trustees.
The university has been under pressure from black students to increase both black student enrollment and the number of programs and faculty geared toward them.
Current enrollment figures show 3,741 black students. Black students make up just a 4.5 percent share, edging up from 4.4 percent last year.
Total minority enrollment is 9,352, or 11.2 percent of the student body, compared to 10.8 percent last year.
Almost half of Penn State's enrollment is at its University Park campus. Administrators want to keep enrollment there between 40,000 and 42,000, Romano said.
Enrollment at University Park is a record 41,445, up 1.5 percent from last year. But Penn State's attempt to curb growth at University Park is evident in enrollment totals for the past five years. Growth across all campuses was 6.3 percent while the population at University Park climbed 2.4 percent.
All those people...and your 900 year old coach STILL can't keep you from SUCKING.
That's too bad.
:lol: