Tusculum College anticipating another record-breaking number of students entering its fall class

Tusculum College is poised to welcome another record-breaking number of entering students when the 2002-2003 academic year begins in August, according to George Wolf, vice president for enrollment management.

Wolf said that the fall 2002 entering class is expected to be about seven percent larger than the entering class for 2001, which itself set a record.

Wolf reported that current indications are that Tusculum College, the state's oldest college, "will be welcoming over 250 new freshmen and up to 90 transfer students in the Residential College this fall." The Residential College, which serves traditional-aged undergraduate students, is one of Tusculum College's two major divisions. The other is the Graduate and Professional Studies program, which provides higher education to working adults.

Residential College enrollment during the past academic year was 635 and is expected to top 750 this fall. Wolf said that freshmen applications to the college have "increased more than 25 percent from the previous year, eclipsing 1,000 applications for the first time in the college's history. We have seen intense interest in Tusculum College growing throughout the state of Tennessee and in our region." When Tusculum College received the one-thousandth freshman application for 2002 in early April, a celebratory reception was held on the campus.

Tusculum College President Dr. Dolphus Henry heralded the anticipated record-breaking class as "another major step toward our goal of increasing Residential College enrollment to 1,000 students by the fall of 2006. It is gratifying to see more and more students recognizing the potential for a high-quality education offered by Tusculum College. So many students want to attend Tusculum College now that we have taken some major steps to accommodate them."

One of those steps is the construction of four new apartment-style residence halls, which will be available for occupancy for the start of the new academic year. The new apartments will hold up to 192 students and are already almost full for the start of the term in August.

Wolf noted that incoming student academic quality is strong. Students to enter Tusculum College this fall on the whole show increases over the preceding year in all areas of academic preparedness, including increases in the averages of GPAs, as well as ACT and SAT scores, he said.

Although space in the entering class is still available, the increased demand has college officials discussing the possibility of closing the fall entering class for the second year in a row because residence hall space available for freshmen will soon be filled to capacity.

During the 2001-2002 academic year, Tusculum's total student enrollment (Residential College and Professional Studies) was at 1,794.