Pejman Mokhtari
The enrollment status at Pierce College has been increasing at a consistent rate for the start of Fall ’08 compared to Fall ’07.
Dean of Student Services, Marco De La Garza, mentions that “[Pierce is] one of the few colleges that has consistently gone over the enrollment rate for the last six years.”
“Enrollment numbers are up tremendously,” says Research Analysist, Michelle Fowles. Dean of Research, Carol Kozeracki, says, “Within our district, we have the second largest enrollment” and that “[Pierce] is 11 percent higher at the same point in time last year.”
Garza explains that to better assist the students because of the high number in enrollement, Pierce is “adding more students to classes” and “adding more courses to the curriculum.”
From a student’s point of view, Nora Knadjian, 20, explains that her “biology class, during the beginning of the semester, was packed. People were standing and, now, in the fourth week of school, there’s hardly anyone in there.”
As the semester continues the enrollment rate in consistent, but fluctuates during the beginning of the semester. The amount of students differ from the first day of school, the last day to add a class and the last day to drop a class before recieiving a “W.”
There are many reasons why the drop rate decreases from the last day to add and the last day to drop before recieving a “W.” “Not enough discipline,” says Garza and that the “[drop rate] is testing our student population.”
“It’s always a high drop,” says Fowles, “Alot of students register for classes, but never show up.” There are 22,360 active credit students, which is an increase form the 20,133 active credit students of Fall ’07.
However, 982 students are active non-credit, but enrolled for Fall ’08. Still, it is a two student increase from the 980 active non-credit students of Fall ’07.
It is proven that just because the student is enrolled, it does not mean that they are getting the credits they need.
Fall ’08 has 32 percent of the students taking day classes, which is 7,071 students and 6,326 students are taking evening classes that leads to 28 percent of the student body.
This is an increase from Fall ’07, which had 6,203 students taking day classes and 6,032 students taking evening classes.
The majority of the students are the remainder 40 percent of the Fall ’08 students that is 8,963 students, who are taking both day and evening classes. This is a one percent increase from Fall ’07 of students, who took both day and evening classes, which is 7,898.
The reason the majority of the students are taking both evening and day classes is due to “class availability,” says Kozeracki, and, also mentions, “Every classroom is used during the evening.”
The majority of the students that are 7,860 students and contain 35 percent of the enrollment are under 20 years of age. This is closely related to the 7,008 students, who were under 20 of Fall ’07.
The next high age class of students is from 20-24 years of age that 7,017 students and are 31 percent of the students. Comparism to the 6,340 students of Fall ’07, it is not a drastic change, but still an increase.
The 25-34 age range is 3,825 students that covers 17 percent of the enrollment and is closely similar to the 3,354 student between the ages of 25-34 of Fall ’07.
Students above 35 cover 16 percent of enrollment and are 3,658 students, which is a one percent decrease from the 17 percent of Fall ’07.
The women seem to be taking over Pierce when it comes to the competition of sexes on campus. Garza mentions there is a “2:1” ratio at Pierce and the women are the two.
There are 10,014 males that cover 45 percent and, to finish the 55 percent, are the females, who number up to 12,346.
The amount of males have increased from the 44 perecent and the amount of females have decreased from the 54 percent of Fall ’07.
Pierce has increased in enrollment since last year and the past six years, so, be prepared for the amount of students coming in for next year.
Source List: Michelle Fowles (Research Analysist): 818-710-4493 Helped me with all my statisticsCarol Kozeracki (Dean of Research): 818-710-4108Marco De La Garza (Dean of Student Services): 818-710-2955Nora Knadjian (student): 818-256-6344