Some northeast Indiana colleges have record numbers of students this fall

New graduate programs are driving some of the growth, and schools have stepped up their recruiting efforts to attract undergrads as the pool of potential students declines.

But just counting how many students a school has isn’t as easy as it used to be. Enrollment includes on-campus and online degree programs and hybrids of the two; and students in high school who earn dual credit but may never set foot on campus in the process. Many students at the area’s two public institutions, Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne and Ivy Tech Community College - Northeast, as well as at Trine University’s satellite campuses, attend part-time or on and off as they balance work and family with school.

Here is a brief rundown of the trends:

IPFW

Both the head count of students enrolled and the total number of credit hours that degree-seeking students at Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne dipped about 4 percent this fall.

The school enrolled 9,376 undergrad and 540 graduate students. A drop in new students coming in directly from high school was balanced, in part, by a 10-percent increase in the number of transfer students from other IU and Purdue campuses, as well as a 9-percent increase in transfers from other schools and students who are re-entering or have been readmitted to school after some time off.

“We were very purposeful in reaching out to transfer students,” said George McClellan, vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management.

The school is also seeing some indication that the average number of credit hours being taken by new degree-seeking students is higher than in the past.

Without pushing too much, “There’s a balance to encouraging students to get through as quickly as the pace of their lives allow,” he said.

A whopping 3,298 high school students are enrolled in dual credit classes, on the IPFW campus or in their own schools. That’s a 14-percent increase in students and a 15-percent growth in credit hours. It makes IPFW one of the largest, if not the largest, provider of dual credit courses among four-year colleges in Indiana, McClellan said.

Trine University

With a 49 percent growth rate system-wide, Trine University may be the fastest growing private college in the state.

“Our message is very simple. We’ve been offering quality education for 130 years,” said President Earl Brooks II.

The school has about 1,700 students at its main campus in Angola. Another 1,900 students are enrolled in its School of Professional Studies, which has campuses in Fort Wayne and other locations in Indiana as well as in Sturgis, Mich., and Peoria, Ariz. The latter number also includes high school students taking dual classes in Angola and Peoria.

The school has seen enrollment growth in several areas.

“Engineering has always served us well and this is our largest class in history,” Brooks noted.

Additionally, Trine launched its doctorate of physical therapy program this year in Fort Wayne, part of its new School of Health Sciences. It received 200 applications for only 32 places. To accommodate its growth, Trine is investing heavily in new and renovated facilities – about $100 million over 10 years.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Trine highly in a list of colleges that graduate students with less debt. “Every student that attends Trine gets some kind of tuition assistance,” Brooks said.

Ivy Tech

Enrollment at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast declined about 9 percent this fall, a drop that reflects, among other things, the improving area economy.

“We have the benefit and the detriment in northeast Indiana of people going back to work,” said Chris Cathcart, vice chancellor for student affairs.

Back in 2008 and 2009, when the economy was soft and jobs were scarce, Ivy Tech saw a huge influx of students who chose school because they couldn’t find work and/or were seeking education as a way make themselves more competitive in the tough job market.

“We did nothing but open the doors to open the floodgates,” Cathcart said.

Higher employment, changes in funding mechanisms and a drop in the population of potential students have all contributed to reduced enrollment levels, said Andrew Welch, executive director of marketing and communications.

The majority of Ivy Tech students attend part-time and also balance work and family obligations while going to school. Many already had some college education in the past.

“You have to look at who we are and who we serving,” Welch said. “We are not Purdue. We are not IU-Bloomington,”

For 40 years of its history, Ivy Tech was a vocational college. Now it is a full-fledged community college, offering associate degree programs and two-year courses of study which allow students to apply to four-year degrees elsewhere. To make it easier for students, the school has restructured and simplified its programs into four main areas: health; business, public sector and social sciences; technology; and university transfer programs.

Manchester University

Strengthening Manchester University’s brand identity is helping the North Manchester-based school build its enrollment. Preliminary numbers show a 20-percent increase in first-year students over 2013, and a 9.6 percent increase overall.

“We’ve just had a transformative year,” said Scott Ochander, vice president for enrollment and marketing. “We’ve just become very transparent about who we are and what we offer.”

With its pharmacy school in Fort Wayne now in its third year, Manchester is enhancing its reputation as a regional university.

“But one of the things I think is really exciting…is how much of the core of what Manchester offers is in higher demand,” Ochander said.

The school has always been strong in the natural sciences and in business majors, such as accounting, and that continues.

“That’s our power house,” Ochander said.

The pharmacy school added 73 new students this fall, bringing the total there to more than 200.

Manchester offers students the option of finishing their degrees in just three years for every major except accounting, which requires more credit hours to prepare for the CPA exam. All students get some sort of financial aid. About 80 to 90 percent of undergrad students come from within Indiana; for pharmacy, it’s just the opposite, Ochander said.

Huntington University

New graduate programs and an improved retention rate helped fall enrollment at Huntington University grow by about 7 percent this year.

Eighty-five percent of freshmen enrolled last year came back for their sophomore year, the best retention rate since 1999. The school boosted its efforts across campus departments “to make sure students get the support they need,” said Nate Perry, director of undergraduate admissions.

Graduate enrollment went from 72 students to 136, a growth rate of 89 percent.

“A lot of that is due to our new doctoral program in occupational therapy,” Perry said.

Huntington’s only doctorate, fully enrolled with 32 students, is offered in facilities it shares with Trine Univeristy on the Parkview Hospital Randallia campus. Its master’s degree in counseling is offered both in Huntington and Fort Wayne.

More than half of Huntington’s students come from Indiana. The vast majority are full-time. The school also offers a program for high school seniors, who can get a head start on college by taking classes at Huntington.

“It’s definitely a recruiting tool any time we can have students experience campus life, even if it’s only for six hours a week,” Perry said.

Huntington has pledged to offer classes in Peoria, Ariz., in partnership with Trine, but has not begun those yet.

University of Saint Francis

The University of Saint Francis opened its year with 2,324 new and returning students, the third largest enrollment in the school’s history. Last year’s enrollment set an all-time record at more than 2,400 students.

The number of students enrolled in the school’s virtual campus is up 53 percent. New programs include a bridge degree for registered nurses who want to earn their to bachelor’s in nursing, and master’s degrees in business administration and health administration.

A student who already has an MBA can earn an MHA by taking just the online courses needed in the more specialized area, said Trois Hart, associate vice president, marketing.

A Lilly Endowment grant is funding a new program in insurance and risk management. The courses will be offered as part of a concentration beginning with the spring semester, and then as a degree next fall when the Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership moves to USF’s downtown campus.

The university will direct $15 million to student financial aid over this academic year, Sister M. Elise Kriss, the university’s president, said.

Grace College

Grace College achieved a record-breaking enrollment of 2,187 students this year, an overall increase of 14.9 percent from last year.

“The increased number of students choosing Grace demonstrates that our aggressive attempts to lower costs and present more efficient educational models are directly benefiting students who seek the best value in education,” Grace President Bill Katip said in a written announcement.

About 50 percent of Grace students choose to earn their degrees over three years instead of four. The option is available in all 65 majors. Students accomplish the feat by taking basic courses online in the summer, paying a $150 tech fee but no tuition.

Grace also offers upperclassmen the option of beginning graduate courses while they are still undergrads so they can finish their bachelors and masters together in four years.

The Winona Lake school has even bigger plans for next year, when it implements its “Measure of Grace” initiative, said media spokesman David Grout.

Beginning with the incoming class of 2015, it will lower its undergraduate tuition by 9 percent and provide free textbook rentals for all undergrads.

The school also guarantees tuition will never be higher than in the student’s first year, and students who stay will get loyalty discounts that will cut tuition $500 each consecutive year.

The initiative goes beyond making the school more financially competitive, Grout said, although the programs combined could save students almost $45,000 over other private colleges.

“It’s not just a way to increase enrollment because we’ve been going up anyway. This is far from an act of desperation,” he said.