[Article in university magazine]

A Great Problem

When the faculty, staff and students of Pasadena College pulled up stakes and moved to San Diego 27 years ago, they claimed a prime piece of ocean-front real estate and one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world.

Because the location of the property was within a coastal residential area, the city of San Diego required a conditional use permit (CUP) agreement with the college. One of the stipulations of the CUP was an enrollment cap of 2000 FTE (full time equivalent) students. At a time when PC’s enrollment was slightly over 1000, a 2000 FTE must have seemed like a distant dream.

But dreams have a way of become reality and last fall, PLNU reached the 2000 FTE enrollment plateau. It is a development that has far-reaching implications for the university and one that is requiring adjustments throughout the institution, particularly in the area of admissions and enrollment management.

Point Loma has experienced a phenomenal growth spurt in recent years. Freshman enrollment has grown by 91% in the last decade from 322 in 1991 to this fall’s entering class of 612. Since 1991, the number of applications for enrollment has doubled and this year exceeded 2300 students applying for approximately 750 available slots (freshmen and transfer).

The academic preparedness of these enrollees has increased dramatically as well. SAT test scores have risen nearly 75 points and the average high school G.P.A. has increased one half of a point during the same time. That means the number of applicants which meet Point Loma’s criteria for enrollment has ballooned at a time when the number of students the university is allowed to admit has become limited.

How is PLNU’s admissions office adjusting to meet the challenges? According to Scott Shoemaker, director of admission, “In a word—deadlines. The management of enrollment is dependent on specific knowledge of the applicant pool within a reasonable time frame.”

To assist with meeting enrollment targets, an admission timeline was developed by one of President Bob Brower’s Century II Commission task teams, which initiated a series of deadlines for all applicants. March 1 of each recruiting year is the date by which all applications should be filed.

The university has also instituted an early action date of December 1, designed for applicants for whom PLNU is first choice. Even in light of these proactive steps, last year, nearly 1700 first-year students applied for 550 available slots. This gives PLNU the highest applicant-to-available-space ratio of any Christian school in the Western United States.

Dr. Barry Ryan, vice president for University Relations, whose area of responsibility includes admissions, reported “We were particularly pleased with Nazarene student recruiting this year. If all the prospective Nazarenes who were offered admission by PLNU persisted to matriculation, 37% of the freshman class would have come from within our denomination.”

Ryan said future study will be aimed at determining why certain demographic groups recruited by the university show a lower percentage of persistence through the enrollment process.

“This has been the most amazing recruiting year in the history of the university,” Ryan said. “One which we celebrate and from which we will learn even more.”

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