GCSU increases geographic range

     Jessica Smith is a freshman undeclared major from Marietta, Ga., who graduated from Lassiter High School. She entered GCSU with a 3.3 GPA and a SAT score of 1128. However, Jessica Smith is not a real person, but a composite of the most common characteristics of the freshman class.
     The composite student has been a part of freshman orientation and Parents’ Day for the last four years. Previous composite students have been from Brookwood and Grayson High Schools in Gwinnett County.
     This year was the first year in the last several years that a city has come ahead of Lawrenceville. Ask any student where he is from, and he is likely to respond with a city in the Atlanta area. This trend is also evident at other colleges in the state.
     There are more people at GCSU from Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton and other metro Atlanta counties. This phenomenon is not necessarily because GCSU is pushed more among schools in this area, but mainly because there are simply more people in the Atlanta area. There are more high schools with more people, which in turn feeds the universities in Georgia.
     Fifteen years ago, students at GCSU were primarily from counties near Milledgeville. The school had a mostly regional influence. But in recent years, the geographic range has extended. As a result, metro Atlanta high schools realized the potential of GCSU as a valuable option.
     “Some of our best recruitment comes from current students,” said Mike Augustine, director of admissions.
     This happens when students go home and mention GCSU and how much they enjoy it. Word of mouth is an effective tool in promoting a school.
     But the influx of students from Atlanta suburbs can be overwhelming from a diversity standpoint. There are significantly fewer students from outside metro Atlanta. GCSU recruits all over the state, with representatives to cover the north, central and southern regions. They also employ a recruiter for minorities. These recruiters visit high schools and college fairs in their respective regions.
     “We look at diversity (when admitting students), and one type of diversity is geographic,” Augustine said.
     Recruitment begins even earlier with some potential students. Events such as the geography bee and band camps draw middle and high school students to the campus outside the recruiting environment of Fallfest and Springfest. This is known as “passive recruiting.”
     Other changes in the face of this campus are the students that are attracted to the school.
    “I think the biggest change is the type of student … they’re much more passionate, engaged and motivated,” Augustine said.
     These changes have improved GCSU’s standings among other schools in the state. For the past nine years, the average SAT score has been higher than the University System of Georgia average and has continued to climb.
     As GCSU grows in accordance to the University System’s plans, the face of this campus should not change much.   Enrollment will increase slightly, but the main campus has a capacity of approximately 6,000. But current enrollment trends indicate that students from the Atlanta area will continue to make up a majority of the GCSU student body.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 30 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry