March 30, 2017  |  News & Events, Timely Announcements

Colleagues,

On an ongoing basis, the Chancellor’s Enrollment Management Action Team (CEMAT) coordinates enrollment management efforts at UWM, focusing on a variety of strategic efforts that include recruiting, retaining and graduating students, as well as providing support and services that promote student success. The focus in this email update is on students new to UWM, comparing Fall 2017 application and admitted student statistics to where we were a year ago at this time for Fall 2016.

New Freshmen
Compared to Fall 2016, applications are up 4.8% for a total of 9,569. The number of admitted new freshmen is basically unchanged (up 0.9%), at 6,735. Given previous application and admission behavior, approximately 91% of anticipated activity has occurred.  In other words, our pool of prospective students is close to being complete. UWM has received applications from 3,502 underrepresented students, an increase of 12.3%.  Admits for underrepresented students are up by 2.7%.

New Transfer
Continuing a trend of recent years, new transfer applications are down by 9% for a current total of 2,119. Admits are down by 1.6%.   Please note: transfer students apply later than new freshmen.  As a result, we are only about half way through (44.3%) their enrollment funnel, based on prior year activity.

Illinois
Expanding recruitment in Illinois is a key priority of UWM’s Strategic Enrollment Management plan, now in its first year of implementation. Given additional marketing and recruiting efforts, we are beginning to see results with freshmen applications from Illinois at 1,307 (up 20.5%) and admits at 916 (up 9.3% compared to last year).  Further, transfer applications from Illinois increased to 312 (up 5.1%) with admits at 193 (up 14.2%).

Finally, the Graduate School has coordinated the inclusion of select graduate programs in the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP) tuition discount program, which may also lead to an increase in graduate applications from Illinois. As of March 13, there are 78 admitted graduate students who are eligible for MSEP.

New Master’s
At the master’s level, applications are up by 1.3% for a total of 2,585. Admits are down by 1.2% at 976. Given previous application and admission behavior, approximately 52% of anticipated activity has occurred.

New Doctoral
Doctoral applications are down by 3.7% at 1,221.  Admits are also down by 1.7%.  Approximately 67% of anticipated activity has occurred.

International
Coincident with national trends, after years of growth in international students, the University is facing a drop in applications and admissions (although the numbers have improved over the past two weeks). Fall 2017 admitted applications compared to Fall 2016 figures are as follows:

Applications are down 20.2% for undergraduates and down 5.7% for graduates, a total of -9.5%. Undergraduate admits are down by 10.9% and up 8.4% for graduates, a total of +2%.

Honors College
As of March 13, there were 661 admits to the Honors College, of which 124 have accepted the offer of admission, up from 84 accepted students at the same time in 2016 (about a 5% increase). The average ACT for students who have accepted offers is 28.7 and the unweighted GPA average is 3.83.

Financial Aid
For the 2017-18 academic year, the U.S. Department of Education made the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) available starting October 1, 2016, three months sooner than past years.  As a result, the Office of Financial Aid was able to process awards for new prospective students earlier.  As of March 14, 3,977 financial aid awards have been processed, an increase of 44.4% from 2016. This may have a positive impact on yield (applicants who ultimately enroll).

In summary, we are facing a challenging enrollment scenario for Fall 2017 but there are positive areas (new freshman applications, Illinois, Honors, master’s, and an earlier start to awarding financial aid). The Office of Undergraduate Admissions (OUA), the Graduate School, and schools and colleges will be working very hard to attract additional applications and to increase the yield of students who have applied for Fall 2017. OUA staff are meeting with schools, colleges, and departments to discuss their role in yield (national best practice tells us that college/department specific outreach has the best impact from the point of admission forward). As we progress in implementation of UWM’s Strategic Enrollment Management plan, the impact on student enrollment will be tracked through the SEM Dashboard.

On behalf of CEMAT,

Johannes Britz, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Dani Rollins, Chief Enrollment Officer and Director, Office of Undergraduate Admissions