A Message from President Kim About Enrollment
September 26, 2019
Dear Columbia faculty and staff,Having just passed census day, I am writing to share the very good news that the college’s overall enrollment grew 1.8 percent in Fall 2019—the first increase in 11 years—fueled by a nearly 34 percent increase in freshmen, the largest year-over-year growth on record.
Additionally, the six-year graduation rate for students who entered Columbia as freshmen increased to 49.9 percent this year—the highest on record and up more than 10 percentage points since 2009. Columbia’s six-year graduation rate in recent years has exceeded the national average for institutions with similar applicant acceptance rates (90 percent or more). Our graduation rate for students who entered Columbia as transfers was 76.4 percent this year, also the highest on record and up nearly 15 percentage points since 2009.
Perhaps best of all, in our most recent survey, 90 percent of recent graduates report being employed within a year of earning their degree.
These successes are the result of the hard work, the expertise, and the commitment that you continue to bring to the college and our collective aspiration of achieving greatness for Columbia. While we certainly have much yet to do, it is exciting to see our work beginning to coalesce, bringing us to the point where we are better able to deliver on our promise of value to our students.
This fall, we enrolled 1,748 freshmen, compared to 1,305 in fall 2018, a 33.9 percent increase. Our total enrollment stands at 6,947—6,708 undergraduates and 239 graduate students.
Here are a few key facts about this year’s incoming class:
- 44 percent of the class is Pell grant eligible
- 97 percent of the class received merit and/or need scholarships from Columbia
- 49 percent of the class are students of color, making this freshmen class our most diverse ever
- 51 percent of the class is from outside Illinois
We are also doing better at retaining existing students. This fall, the retention rate (the percentage of last year’s first-time freshmen who returned this fall as sophomores) is at 71.5 percent, nearly 4 full percentage points higher than last year and the highest on record.
Our completion and enrollment progress coincide with the ongoing reimagining of academic offerings called for in our strategic plan, and an overhaul of financial aid at the college. This year, we boosted scholarship spending, in particular increasing the number of portfolio-based scholarships awarded by faculty and launching new scholarships for students at Chicago Public Schools high schools focused on the creative fields, as well as high school students from the Arts Schools Network across the country.
As we continue developing an educational model that will help guarantee the real-world success of our creative students, we have assessed the content of all majors for relevance and currency and have added new minors and revised existing offerings to encourage students to think across disciplinary boundaries. We are strengthening our Liberal Arts Core, bringing it into closer alignment with majors and continue to embed technology and business skills into our academic programs. Our goal with this work is to better prepare students to adapt to the practical realities they will encounter as they begin building their careers.
Given our intention to establish ourselves as a national leader in the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), we have been creating new curricular content, examining new pedagogies, revising policies and procedures, and building more extensive representation across our community.
And of course, we just cut the ribbon on our new Student Center.
I know we are all committed to offering quality academic and professional opportunities to every one of our students, and I am proud to reaffirm our institutional commitment to ensuring that the broadest range of students have access to these opportunities.
Thank you for continuing to get the word out about this wonderful institution and for your determination to continue growing the value of a Columbia education and the Columbia experience. We have asked a lot of each other and been through a lot together over the last few years so it is particularly gratifying to see things coming together.
With my appreciation and my best wishes for a great fall semester,
Kwang-Wu Kim, President