Purdue enrollment spike leaves students scrambling, unsure about campus housing
Students get reassignment notices, sent to Purdue-leased apartments far off campus, as President Chiang says enrollment shot up by 1,600 more students than expected. Purdue: ‘More details' coming
Returning Purdue students who say they believed they were set with university housing for the fall 2024 semester were scrambling this week after receiving notices that they were being reassigned – in some cases in university-rented apartment complexes four miles from campus.
The changes followed what Purdue President Mung Chiang said was an unexpected spike in acceptance rates from incoming freshman at the tail end of the acceptance period – something he called “beyond all historical ‘yield rate’ expectation.”
In a message posted on LinkedIn Thursday, Chiang said that Purdue had been “aiming at about 300 fewer freshman class enrollment than the typical target despite a record number of applicants, trying to avoid enrollment above capacity.” Chiang wrote that changed when “‘April 25’ happened nationwide” and “high school seniors and their families leaning toward other universities in Indiana and in other states pivoted to accept Purdue's admission instead, based on the different campus conditions they saw.”
April 25, in this case, would be a reference to how campuses – particularly at Indiana University – handled demonstrations over the war in Gaza during the spring semester.
The upshot, Chiang said: Purdue wound up with 1,600 additional freshman than the university had planned to have when classes start in August.
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