Chiang: Purdue trying to minimize enrollment surprises in wake of another applications record
Chiang says university is wary of another enrollment surprise; noncommittal on DEI orders, Statehouse bill impacts. Plus, house built for fired coach Ryan Walters hits market at $4.9M. And more.
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CHIANG: PURDUE TRYING TO MINIMIZE ENROLLMENT SURPRISES IN WAKE OF ANOTHER APPLICATIONS RECORD. NONCOMMITTAL, THOUGH, ON IMPACT OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS, STATEHOUSE BILLS ON CAMPUS
A record pace of applications to Purdue in recent years continues, with what the university reports as a 14.7% increase in early figures over the same period a year earlier.
“You might also wonder how many undergrad students Purdue may have come August,” Purdue President Mung Chiang said during a University Senate meeting Monday.
“We don't know the full answer yet, because this is only January in the undergraduate admissions cycle,” Chiang told the faculty-led body. “But we do know in the early action round – the deadline was Nov. 1 and results were released Jan. 15 – we had yet another record year, by a long stretch, frankly.”
Chiang said the university was working to limit how that might translate to the freshman class arriving on campus at the start of the fall 2025 semester, including issuing deferrals that will have some applicants waiting for Purdue acceptance until later in the enrollment cycle.
The news comes after Purdue enrolled a record freshman class in fall 2024, outstripping initial goals and estimates and causing trickle down effects on housing on campus and in near-campus neighborhoods.
“It's a reflection of this non-stoppable and, frankly, accelerating scale of demand for education at Purdue across different degrees,” Chiang told the University Senate. “At the same time, we have to be very careful in knowing that once you admit students, you could never take that back. And therefore you have to make sure we have the physical facilities and capacity to take care of every single one of the students who might choose to come to us.”
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