With student enrollment at The City University of New York surging and the demand for fall 2011 at a record high, CUNY officials have announced that first-time freshmen applications submitted after May 7, 2010 will be placed on a wait list for fall 2010 in the event additional space becomes available and the remainder will be processed for admission starting in January 2011.
As of late April, the University had already received more than 70,000 applications for fall 2010, more than the number received during the entire fall 2009 application period.
Transfer and graduate applications remain unaffected at this time.
Changes are necessary to ensure quality
Chancellor Matthew Goldstein said that the applicant wait list and processing change are necessary to ensure the high quality of a CUNY education during this challenging period.
“We are doing the very best we can to balance the need to keep the University open and available to the students who wish to study here,” the Chancellor said in remarks to the Board of Trustees at its public meeting on April 26. “But we will do it a responsible way so that we can educate our students.”
Interest in CUNY continues at an extremely high level. As of mid-April the University received more freshman applicants than it had by July 14 of last year, and 2009 was a record year as well. Transfer applications continue to run way ahead of schedule. CUNY enrollment has increased dramatically during the past several years. Just between fall 2008 and fall 2009, CUNY’s headcount enrollment in credit-bearing courses increased more than 6 percent, to approximately 260,000 students, the highest enrollment in CUNY’s history.
Tough Economy Contributed to Application Boom
The burgeoning, and challenging, influx of students – including high achievers, suburbanites, community college students and career changers – resoundingly confirms that strengthened standards, expanded academic programs and the University’s reputation for academic quality and value are not only attracting more students than ever in a tough, competitive economy, but keeping them at CUNY.
For the students who applied for the current spring semester, applications rose by 77.4 percent for students from non-CUNY colleges, public and private. As of early spring, 16,137 students had applied for transfer to the University, compared with 9,093 for the same period in 2009.
Editorial Note: This story was edited from the CUNY Newswire.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Prospective Freshmen who apply after May 7th will be placed on waiting list.
- A waiting list helps ensure the high quality of a CUNY education.
- Interest in CUNY continues at an extremely high level.