<p>Article:[UI</a> enrollment appears strong | press-citizen.com | Iowa City Press Citizen](<a href=“http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100505/NEWS01/5050313/1079/news01/UI-enrollment-appears-strong]UI”>http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100505/NEWS01/5050313/1079/news01/UI-enrollment-appears-strong)</p>
<p>This is great news in that the university would like to increase its freshmen class by at least 500 for incoming years. Will be interesting to see the final numbers.</p>
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<p>This seems like excellent news overall – increase probably driven by a combination of factors such as strong and improving reputation, more focus on recruitment, and the economy (Iowa provides strong value, both for in-state, and OOS relative to other public OOS and private options). A winning football program and recovery from the floods helps, and Iowa does a nice job with campus visits. </p>
<p>One concern – if acceptances are up 10%, where will all the freshman be housed? I was under the impression that the residence halls were already pretty full.</p>
<p>Here is an article:[Regents</a> to vote on Iowa House - The Daily Iowan](<a href=“http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/04/23/Metro/16924.html]Regents”>http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/04/23/Metro/16924.html)</p>
<p>There are reviewing on whether they should convert the Iowa House Hotel to a dorm or build on Quad.</p>
<p>Looks like the conversion of Iowa House has been tabled for now. This article does indeed say that funds to build dorms are separate from operating expenses and thus a dorm could be built even if the overall budget is being stressed:
[UI</a> backs off dorm conversion - The Daily Iowan](<a href=“http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/04/29/Metro/17040.html]UI”>http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/04/29/Metro/17040.html)</p>
<p>Personally, I like Iowa House as an on-campus lodging option for my visits. Can’t say I’d want to live there for a school year, however!</p>
<p>I am concerned about increased enrollment as the pressure it brings on budgets is immediate while increasing those budgets, because they require action by the state legislature, is slow and intensely political. </p>
<p>I’ve heard that Iowa’s “crop” of 18 year olds lags that of many states, and that this is why they’re recruiting OOS aggressively. As a MN resident, we’re passing up in-state schools both in MN and WI to pay OOS at Iowa, which is not as cheap but still a far better value than we’d experience at big state schools elsewhere in the Big Ten, or in private schools. I think Iowa universities are a largely overlooked bargain by the throngs killing themselves to get into Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.</p>
<p>I had assumed that OOS tuition is more than sufficient to not require any matching state funding. </p>
<p>I agree that Iowa is one of the more overlooked and underrated state schools. Much lower marketing profile on the coasts than several other Big Ten schools. Iowa has indicated that they plan to change that in specific states.</p>
<p>Here is some more data on yields, including Iowa, up 1%:
[The</a> Early Line on Admission Yields (and Wait-List Offers) - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/yield-3/]The”>The Early Line on Admission Yields (and Wait-List Offers) - The New York Times)</p>
<p>…based on some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations, with applications up ~2100 (14%?), yield up 1%, and admission rate down ~5% to 78% (used to be 83%, I think) per the following:
[2010</a> Admissions Tally - The Choice Blog - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010-admissions-tally/]2010”>http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010-admissions-tally/)</p>
<p>…and this recent article posted here earlier:
[UI</a> enrollment appears strong | press-citizen.com | Iowa City Press Citizen](<a href=“http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20105050313]UI”>http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20105050313)</p>
<p>I could imagine a freshman class in the range of 4,400-4,500, up from 4056…all great news overall from a long-term perspective for Iowa, because it means more top line revenue for Iowa, better leverage of existing fixed cost/infrastructure and more students are interested in coming to Iowa. But short-term, does this mean a lot of people in temp housing (doubles converted to triples, lounges to temp rooms, etc.) in the fall?</p>
<p>And most importantly, and perhaps most concerning, coming on the heels of an Orange Bowl season, football tickets will be harder to come by!</p>
<p>4,500 would achieve their five year goal. Really great that more are starting to see the great school that University of Iowa is.</p>
<p>Interesting! But aren’t state universities funded in large measure by the state legislature? If 70% of Iowa’s students are paying in-state fees, isn’t this potentially a net loss in revenue, as they (??) are not paying as much in tuition as they are costing the university? I don’t know - I’m curious.</p>
<p>As for football tickets, students apparently buy them at summer orientation. As for the rest of us, the possibility of the entire stadium being sold out to season ticketholders is very real. I called about single-game tickets and was told to try back in late June. Otherwise, I’m looking at $100+ on stubhub for the Wisc game.</p>
<p>Beastman, Good question on the revenue side. I’m just guessing that the increase is a combination of in-state and OOS in proportion to previous years (may not be the case due to economy, will need to wait to see data), and that Iowa will not immediately increase the number of highly compensated professors or build new classrooms, but rather will make more complete use of existing classes, instructors and facilities. Eventually, if the trend continues, the infrastructure would need to grow. But I think the tighter standards on admissions, if sustained, would fuel an ongoing stronger applicant pool, which would in turn drive greater OOS interest. I think this cycle is already happening, and I think the administration is trying to fuel it, to the benefit of the long-term health and sustainability of the school. </p>
<p>On the football ticket side, having experienced a Big Ten Rose Bowl season as a student. all I can say is: Hawkeye sweatshirt, $40, 2 Tickets to OSU/Hawkeye game on Craigslist, $400, season ticket for son or daughter, ~$170, experiencing a run at a Big Ten championship football season at a school that had not done so in 20 years, and the possibility of seeing the team run onto the field in Glendale or Pasadena in January, priceless.</p>
<p>I think most football tickets may be gone, not sure.</p>
<p>Interesting article about the housing crunch we had speculated about a few weeks ago. Looks like the freshman class is headed toward 4475, almost 200 more than the previous largest incoming class. :</p>
<p>[How</a> to house record number of students | press-citizen.com | Iowa City Press Citizen](<a href=“http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100610/NEWS01/6100328/How-to-house-record-number-of-students]How”>http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100610/NEWS01/6100328/How-to-house-record-number-of-students)</p>
<p>Great news. I actually read this article from the press-citizen and gazetteonline. According to the articles most of the increase is due to a larger out of state population and international population. It’s really great that the school accomplished this, as at first a class near 4500 was a set goal for 2015 but instead it was accomplished 2010.
As for housing, I read that the school will be building a new resident hall on the west part of campus. It is also possible that they might build two resident halls after the first is completed.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.uiowa.edu/admissions/undergrad/whos-at-iowa/FirstYearStudentProfile2010.pdf[/url]”>http://www.uiowa.edu/admissions/undergrad/whos-at-iowa/FirstYearStudentProfile2010.pdf</a></p>
<p>Those are academic statistics for IOWA class of 2010 above.</p>
<p>Thank you for posting this, CB. I hope things are going well for you!</p>
<p>I found a few things particularly interesting:
<p>Expect to see 43 stunned freshmen the first time the wind chill drops to -40! They’ll be the same one’s with their noses glued to the windows with the first snowflakes.</p>
<p>Thanks CB. Good reading. I now understand why 80%+ of the kids on my daughter’s floor in Burge are from Illinois!! B10P</p>
<p>Very interesting indeed. Here’s what jumped out at me:
<p>Oh, and RWE, IC doesn’t get what we winter snobs call “a real winter.” It’ll see snow but it’ll see big thaws as well, and I doubt any temps anywhere near -40! Not that this will offer much consoloation to your daughter whose probably already got the down vest out, but it could be much worse!</p>
<p>Do anyone know the freshman retention rate for the class of 2014? I remember reading that the university has set a goal to increase it from 83 percent to 90+.
According to collegeboard.com retention rate is at 86 percent for class of 2013.</p>
<p>Hi Coolbrezze,</p>
<p>Based on the date of this article:
[UI</a> sets record freshman enrollment, increases retention | Iowa Higher Education](<a href=“http://iowahighereducation.com/2010/09/ui-sets-record-freshman-enrollment-increases-retention/]UI”>http://iowahighereducation.com/2010/09/ui-sets-record-freshman-enrollment-increases-retention/)</p>
<p>it looks like the university publishes the new number in September, after they complete the census for returning students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link.</p>