Northwest College enrollment dips only slightly

Numbers remain steady despite nationwide trend

Posted 10/26/23

Northwest College enrollment has come close to steadying while national community college enrollment continues to plummet.

According to a report by NWC Institutional Research Manager Lisa Smith, …

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Northwest College enrollment dips only slightly

Numbers remain steady despite nationwide trend

Posted

Northwest College enrollment has come close to steadying while national community college enrollment continues to plummet.

According to a report by NWC Institutional Research Manager Lisa Smith, the college is at least partially bucking the nationwide trend in part due to being less impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns. The college has also been boosted by a sharp increase in high school students taking concurrent/dual enrollment classes.

“Northwest enrollment has largely followed the national enrollment trend,” she said. “But at NWC we’ve had fairly steady enrollment (especially with head counts) over the last few years.”

Preliminary numbers are down slightly for the fall to 1,368 students, but Smith expects those numbers to change. The last three years final enrollment has been between 1,450 and 1,455 students.

If this year’s enrollment is lower, President Lisa Watson said part of the issue could be the end of extra Covid-era money that had enabled adult learners to attend classes at a low cost.

“If they can’t make it work here they’re just not going to do it,” she said.

What has helped enrollment in recent years has been the burgeoning popularity of dual and concurrent students, high school students who are taking classes at the college or otherwise with a college professor, or taking a college class taught by a high school teacher with the certification to teach a college class.

Due to that, the highest percentage of enrolled students are taking 3-5.5 credits.

While the number of students taking the normal full load of 15-17.5 credits a semester had declined roughly in line with the national trend over the years, there are still a sizable portion of traditional students at NWC. For instance, the number of students taking more than a traditional full load of classes per semester has risen, partly due to the popularity of the high-paced nursing program.

The number of out of state students has also continued to grow, and the college’s reputation for being a local haven for international students has only continued to grow, with 100 enrolled this year.

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