In recent years, SMSU has seen continued growth in their enrollment. Being that there are many efforts to attract incoming students, it can be hard to pinpoint what exactly has caused this continued growth.
Charlette Wahle, Director of Admissions at SMSU, said, “I think SMSU is doing a great job of marketing what sets us apart, which is how supportive not only our staff and academic environment is, but also our community. We are not trying to compare ourselves to others, but rather find what makes us unique.” This reflects the ongoing success of the admissions office.
Wahle mentioned that instead of comparing our campus directly with much larger campuses, their team prefers to highlight what sets SMSU apart from those institutions. She gave an example of Mankato and explained that a student looking for a D1 hockey program might not be interested in a campus that does not offer hockey, but they could still be attracted to SMSU’s personalized education.
The admission staff relies on the advantages of our unique education style to outweigh the perceived shortcomings related to direct comparison. This strategy has proven to be effective, as SMSU is one of the two campuses in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System that has seen growth in both Fall 2023 and Spring 2024.
A couple big differences would be the consistently low tuition cost, as well as the ongoing growth of our degrees offered online. There are 20 degrees offered entirely online with plans to add more. The availability of fully online degrees could be used to explain the growth of online enrollment, when there has been a decline in in-person enrollment.
Director Wahle provided data from Alan Matzner, Director of Institutional Research & Reporting. Since 2016, on-campus enrollment has fallen from around 2,000 to below 1,500, although online enrollment rose from around 300 to nearly 1,000. More recently, the growth has not only been present in a shift to online enrollment, but across the board. Overall retention rates and available scholarship opportunities show continued growth.
Not including the decline that came during the coronavirus, SMSU saw almost no change in enrollment from 2019-2022, with an increase coming last fall. From 2019 to 2023 SMSU has seen an increase from 297 to 343 new first year students, via Alan Matzner.
One possible factor in SMSU being sought after in recent years could be attributed to this generation generally being more likely to be comfortable reaching out for help and accommodations.
Another article on SMSU’s numbers increasing credits the campus’s focus on strengthening its connections with K-12 schools and others alike to encourage first-generation students to attend. Creating these connections and aiding those who otherwise would be discouraged at the thought of trying to seek a degree, is a huge reason for SMSU’s success, and will be for years to come.