Miami Student

Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Front Page

Although concrete admissions numbers for the class of 2012 are not yet available, Director of Admissions Laurie Koehler believes that enrollment is on track to reach the target goal of 3,450 students.

According to Koehler, May 1 was the national deadline for potential first-year students to submit a confirmation to their school of choice.

In February, applications were down about eight percent, but Koehler said they have leveled off to about 5 percent down from 2007.

She attributes this decline to last year's unusually large class and changes in the application process that are meant to turn away "less serious" applicants. The revised application includes a 250-word essay separate from the common application.

Although applications are down overall, Koehler pointed out that the Office of Admission received an increased amount of

applications from both international students and African-American students. Seven percent more African-American students applied this year, and there were 80 percent more international applicants.

The number of international students at Miami is growing quickly, as a 100 percent increase last year brought approximately 500 total international students to Oxford in the 2007-08 school year, according to Koehler.

"While it's too early to know if we'll enroll more international students this year, given that our international applications were up by 80 percent, we believe we'll see somewhat of an increase in enrolling (international) students," Koehler said.

At the April 11 meeting of the board of trustees' audit and finance committee, Provost Jeffrey Herbst said that so far, Miami has seen more out-of-state confirmations than in-state.

However, Herbst mentioned that the majority of the incoming classís confirmations come in the last week, and that the university should have a much firmer idea of where the class stands by May 10.

Ultimately, at the time, Herbst was optimistic.

"All our data says this is where we should be," Herbst said.

Koehler said she does not believe that the new sophomore living requirement, which mandates that most students live on campus for two full years, has had a negative effect on the number of applicants.

"In talking about this in our information sessions, parents in particular seem quite pleased at the change, and at the reasons for the change," Koehler said. "However, we have no data to suggest that this helps or hurts in the application process."

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