BC’s enrollment stays consistent

Published 1:19 pm Friday, November 18, 2011

Bainbridge College’s fall 2011 enrollment was almost identical to its 2010 enrollment, according to statistics released Wednesday by the University System of Georgia (USG).

BC had a total enrollment of 3,736 students in fall 2010, while its current enrollment is 3,734 — a decrease of only two students, or less than 0.1 percent. Waycross College, the only other two-year college in the USG, saw its enrollment fall by a little more than 13 percent.

Although BC’s enrollment numbers stayed consistent, one difference is the number of students who are classified as “full-time.” BC had 3,091 full-time students in fall 2010, and currently has 3,111 — an increase of 20 students, or 0.6 percent. According to the USG, approximately 53.7 percent of BC’s student enrollment is classified as “full-time.”

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“Because of changes to how the state counts the HOPE scholarship, and other factors, we anticipated that there might be a small drop this year,” BC President Richard Carvajal said. “There are additional changes coming next year, and we might have a slight drop again, but it should only be temporary. Over the last 10 years, we’ve grown 11 percent and we foresee that long-term growth continuing into the future.”

The complete enrollment for the USG hit a record of 318,027 students, Chancellor Hank Huckaby said. Last year’s enrollment was 311,442 students, which was also the previous record.

“While the growth over the past year is smaller than in some recent years, we continue to see more individuals seeking access to public higher education,” Huckaby said. “With more of the jobs of the future requiring some form of postsecondary education, we have work to do to increase Georgia’s college-going rate and our college completion rate.”

Among some of the other statistics in the USG report:

• BC has 1,141 male students and 2,593 female students, or approximately 69.4 percent female students. The USG average is 57.4 percent.

• The average age of a BC student is 29.7 years old. The average age of a USG student is 23.9 years old.

“So much of our population is made up of folks who were in the workforce, but are returning to college to get some additional training or learn new skills,” Carvajal said. “That really fits who we are, as an open-access institution.”

• BC’s racial demographic breakdown is as follows: 1.7 percent Hispanic/Latino, 0.2 percent American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.4 percent Asian, 57.9 percent black, 0.1 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 36.9 percent white, 0.6 percent two or more races, and 2.4 percent undeclared.

The complete USG Fall 2011 Enrollment Report is available on the Internet at www.usg.research/students/enroll/fy2012/.