In all, 9,153 incoming freshmen applied for Fall 2010, and there were 2,816 upper division transfer applicants and 488 lower division applicants. The comparable totals for all of last year for the Fall 2009 semester were, respectively, 9,410, 2,233 and 795.
“There was a significant increase in applications over the past few days, especially in upper division transfer applicants,” said Scott Hagg, HSU director of Admissions. “I cannot recall a time when Humboldt State University closed on Nov. 30,” Hagg said, “and it is remarkable that we have maintained such a high level of applications in spite of the early cutoff.”
Nov. 30 is the first day a CSU campus can close applications for the Fall 2010 term. In the past, Humboldt State has kept them open past the deadline, but there has been a marked increase in applications and enrollment at Humboldt State in recent years. That strong demand, along with a 6.5 percent enrollment reduction required next year in the wake of state budget cuts, forced the earlier cutoff.
Steps to meet the reduced enrollment target included closing Spring 2010 to all new students and reducing the Fall 2010 enrollment of new first time freshmen to 1,200 and the transfer class to 1,000. “Using our projection models, we feel confident these steps and others will allow us to meet our enrollment goal of 6,612 full-time-equivalent students for the 2010-2011 academic year,” Hagg said.
Returning students have until Feb. 22 to apply for the Fall 2010 term and the Admissions Office has a process in place to consider late applications.