After receiving many recent accolades, California, State University Stanislaus can add one more — No. 1 in admissions.
Applications for admission to CSU Stanislaus from first-time freshmen are up 13.4 percent this year, the largest increase in the entire CSU system, and the two-year increase was 22.8 percent, also the largest in the system.
Total freshmen applications totaled 6,973, up from 6,148 last year.
Applications from transfer students increased 5.7 percent, the sixth-highest increase in the system.
“We have worked diligently over the past two years on getting the word out about our campus,” said Associate Vice President for Communications & Public Affairs Tim Lynch. “We offer high value for low cost, and we’re a gem in the Central Valley. Our campus has received a lot of national recognition this past year and we’ve made it on a lot of ‘best’ lists.”
Lynch also pointed to improved budgets and increased outreach as reasons for improved recruiting efforts.
“CSU Stanislaus has increased its outreach activities both in our local six-county area and throughout the state. We were able to increase our activities because our open positions were filled, meaning more people could participate in outreach. We’ve also worked with high school counselors over the past couple of years and implemented programming to bring CSU Stanislaus to them via Warrior Pathways. High school counselors are very important when recruiting students because they are the first advisors students will work with when it comes to applying for college. The high school counselors also recognize our value. We are one of six CSUs that is not impacted, which means students are admissible if they meet the base CSU requirements.”
The only downside to such growth is the possibility of unit caps, which set a limit on how many units a student can enroll in. Lynch says that at this time CSU Stanislaus doesn’t expect any unit caps, however the determination is not set in stone until admissions staff begin receiving admission acceptances from students.
“It’s too early to tell just how many incoming students will join our campus community in the fall,” he said.
If a unit cap is implemented it is unknown at this time if there would be an excess fee schedule for students who exceed the cap.
