Kent State hitting record enrollment numbers

Megan Wilkinson|February 15, 2012

Terique Boyd, junior exercise science major, said last fall, Residence Services encouraged him to move off campus because there weren’t enough rooms for freshmen and sophomores.

Quality of Selection Pool

The following are acceptance trends at five other Ohio public institutions, according to collegeboard.com:

Kent State University

  • 89 percent of applicants accepted last year
  • GPA Average: 3.22
  • ACT / SAT Average: 22 ACT; 1370 to 1700 SAT

  • The University of Akron

  • 74 percent of applicants accepted last year
  • GPA Average: 22 percent of students entered with a 2.5 to 2.99
  • ACT / SAT Average: 18 to 24 ACT; 870 to 1190 SAT (not including writing score)

    Bowling Green State University

  • 80 percent of applicants accepted last year
  • GPA Average: 27 percent of students entered with a 2.5 to 2.99
  • ACT / SAT Average: 19 to 25 ACT; 1330 to 1670 SAT

    Miami University

  • 74 percent of applicants accepted last year
  • GPA Average: 41 percent of students entered with a 3.75 or higher
  • ACT / SAT Average: 24 to 29 ACT; 1090 to 1280 SAT (not including writing score)

    Ohio State University

  • 63 percent of applicants accepted last year
  • GPA Average: N/A
  • ACT / SAT Average: 26 to 30 ACT; 1690 to 2010 SAT

    Ohio University

  • 86 percent of applicants accepted last year
  • GPA Average: 42 percent of students entered with a 3.0 to 3.49
  • ACT / SAT Average: 21 to 26 ACT; 1430 to 1760 SAT

“I can physically see the growth of the student population,” Boyd said. “Kent State is so packed, and there’s not enough room. So with admittance, there needs to be some cut-off point.”

Kent State received more than 19,000 student applications as of last week for fall enrollment. Mark Ledoux, associate director of admissions, said the university expects to get between 21,000 and 22,000 total applications by the end of spring.

“We’ve already hit the number of applications we ended up with in June last year,” Ledoux said. “But we think this is probably 85 percent of applications we’re going to receive for the year. Now we want to focus on making sure these students get admitted to Kent State and sign up for housing.”

According to collegeboard.com, Kent State usually accepts 89 percent of its applicants. Ledoux said though this number seems high, it only counts complete applications where students turned in their application fees, transcripts and letters of recommendation.

“You’ll get the 19 to 20,000 students applying, but a lot don’t follow through with all the steps,” Ledoux said. “But I would say that our acceptance rate will go down slightly this year because we’ve had more applications.”

Ledoux said Kent State plans to admit 4,300 students for next fall. 

“That seems to be the ‘magic number,’” he said. “It’s enough students coming in to bring revenue to the university and keep classes full, but it’s not a situation where we’ll be lacking in space.”

David Garcia, vice president of enrollment management, said Kent State wants to make the application process a little more selective if enrollment continues to increase. He said the current average high school GPA is a 3.22 and the average ACT is a 22. Garcia said President Lester Lefton wants to encourage admissions to increase the standards if this trend continues.

“We received a record number of applications at this point, so we want to continue to make great strides to improve the quality of the future freshman class,” Garcia said.

To be selective, or not to be selective?

Pro-selectivity:

There is clearly a space issue at Kent State. Students also said they think some students might apply to college, but not be smart about what they do with their education once they get to the university level.

“It’s important today to have a college degree,” said Ola Sobieska, sophomore German major. “But some institutions in the U.S. have really low standards when accepting students. We have an over-abundance of people who get into college, but then they can’t always do things with their degrees.”

  • The university is already tight on space.
  • To increase the average GPA and test scores of each academic class.

    Anti-selectivity:

    Some students and faculty argued that if a school is less selective, it makes education more available for all students at different academic levels in high school. “College should be about wanting to go and not the ability to get in,” said Elliot, a graduate student who wished to keep his last name anonymous. “There need to be some standards for specific programs, but everybody should have the opportunity to work toward these standards.”

Contact Megan Wilkinson at [email protected].