Liberal arts appeal brings out-of-state students

Out-of-state students account for 2 percent of Georgia College students, with plans to recruit from New York, New Jersey and Illinois

The majority of Georgia College’s students are found to come from within Georgia; however, a small fraction of those students are out-of-state students. Many of these students are attracted to the liberal arts quality that GC offers.

“Approximately 2 percent of our students are out-of-state. That comes to about 113, out of 6,632,” said Suzanne Pittman, assistant vice president for enrollment management.

According to CollegeBoard, approximately 8 percent of Georgia Military College’s 5,963 degree-seeking undergraduates are from out of state. This evens out to be a little bit more than GC’s out-of-state students, even though GMC’s student body is smaller. Other factors can also be considered when comparing GC’s out-of-state rate with GMC’s. GMC is a two year accredited college offering associate degrees while GC is a four year accredited university.

Though the number of out-of-state students at Georgia College and GMC may seem low to most, the GC Admissions Department is making a conscious effort to recruit more students.

“We have started recruiting students in states such as Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Maryland.” Pittman said. “To do this we obtain names of high school students who are looking for the type of liberal arts experience Georgia College has to offer.”

GC continues to attract out-of-state students, with intentions to recruit from New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The long term goal is to begin recruiting on the West Coast.

“We plan to increase our out-of-state travel for recruitment purposes greatly, by attending college fairs in other states and visiting out-of-state high schools.” Pittman said.

While GC is purely seeking a larger and more diverse student body, an article published on Yahoo! News by Liz Goodwin, a regular journalist for academic news on the website, states that colleges are trying to recruit students who pay more, to aide with financials and essentially give universities more money.

“Admission officers say one of their main goals for the next few years is to recruit students who pay more tuition according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey of 462 top admissions officials.” Goodwin said

Pittman makes it clear that this is not the case.

“ We make sure our emails are personalized, as well as our regular mailings, to ensure that we receive real interest of students who want to come from out of state.”

Posted by Lauralee Iaquinto on Oct 20 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.