Enrollment Figures Show Brooklyn College Experiencing Student Gains

The Brooklyn College student community is booming, and College officials have the enrollment figures to prove it.

Associate Director Michael Ayers, Office of Institutional Planning, reported that the College experienced a 3.7 percent increase in overall enrollment, from 16,087 at the start of the 2007–08 academic year to 16,690 in fall 2008. Going back a bit further, Ayers added that "from 2005 through fall 2008, overall enrollment at the College increased 9.2 percent, from 15,281 to its current total."

"All of us at Brooklyn College are pleased that over the past several years we have been able to provide exceptional educational opportunities at an affordable price to increasing numbers of students," said Provost William A. Tramontano. "Access and excellence are watchwords that we take very seriously both as educators and as members of the City University of New York family."

Much of the increase was due to upticks in degree-seeking graduate student enrollment, Ayers said—from 2,956 in fall 2007 to 3,240 in fall 2008, a 9.6-percent increase. He also said that entering degree-seeking graduate enrollment rose to 1,174 in fall 2008 from 1,010 in the year-ago period, a 16.2-percent increase. Further, "entering degree-seeking graduate student enrollment increased from 901 in fall 2006 to 1,174 in fall 2008—a 30.3 percent increase," he said.

The increase in degree-seeking undergraduate enrollment has been more long term, Ayers reported. From fall 2005 to fall 2008, total enrollment for this category rose from 11,068 to 12,160—a 9.9-percent increase. The rise from 11,923 last fall represents a 2-percent increase.

Entering degree-seeking transfer student enrollment increased to 1,699 in fall 2008 from 1,521 in fall 2005, an 11.7-percent increase, Ayers said.

Ayers also noted that the number of entering degree-seeking first-time freshmen has declined slightly since fall 2005. "But in the last year," he explains, "we have had an increase from 1,322 students in fall 2007 to 1,358 in fall 2008."  That was an increase of 2.7 percent, the first increase in a number of years.