Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Chase Martinez Students enter and exit Wooten Hall Monday morning of a new week. [Click to enlarge]

Tentative enrollment numbers could cement NT's place as the third-largest undergraduate university in the state, according to Troy Johnson, associate vice president for enrollment management.
"[It] remains to be seen until we get the enrollment numbers," Johnson said. "These are only preliminary numbers, but we don't expect them to change very much."
Topping last year's, NT's graduate and undergraduate numbers stand at 34,628, up 2.5 percent from last year, according to enrollment counts on the 12th class day.
The official, state-reported numbers will not be counted until Sept. 20, said Rebecca Lothringer, the associate director of admissions. The numbers, she said, do not include the Fort Worth Health Science Center but do include the NT Dallas campus because it has not split from the university yet. The Dallas campus stands at 815 students, and will not be recognized as a separate campus until enrollment reaches 1,000 full-time students, she said.
A trend in the enrollment numbers shows that the average number of undergraduate credit hours has risen 4.1 percent over last year, Johnson said. Part of the reason for the increase is caused by the timely graduation plan the board approved to start this fall, where NT students pay the same amount for tuition and fees in the fall and spring semesters regardless of the number of hours taken once students reach the full-time mark, Johnson said.
"Hopefully that means students will be able to save some money," Johnson said.
NT has two enrollment goals, Lothringer said. The first is to increase diversity, and the second is to increase the quality of students.
"From the preliminary numbers, definitely diversity has increased," she said. "The increase in quality we won't know for a couple more weeks."
The black population at North Texas has gone from 3,989 to 4,326, up 8.4 percent, she said, while the Hispanic enrollment went to 3,824, up 5.6 percent.
Lothringer said direct-from-high school enrollment numbers for freshmen had oddly decreased from last year. However, total freshman enrollment has gone up to 3,735 from 3,558 last year, she said, but those numbers include the Texas Academy of Math and Science students.
Marcilla Collingsworth, the director of admissions, was not available for comment, Lothringer said, because she was already working on next year's enrollment.
Every year, she said, NT hosts a big recruitment program in the Coliseum for high school students.
"We're recruiting already for 2008," Lothringer said. "We have a very successful recruitment program."
Enrollment numbers are up partly thanks to efforts this past year, she said, and also because the university is receiving acknowledgment from the wider world.
"UNT is finally being recognized for the programs we offer," she said.

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