Sept. 10, 2004

Morningside's freshman class is the "right size"

Full-time enrollment at Morningside College increased by 12 percent over last year, with 980 full-time students enrolled for the 2004 fall semester, as compared with 871 students in 2003.

Freshman enrollment increased by 16 percent over last year, with 316 new freshman students enrolled. The college welcomed 410 new full-time students to campus this fall, including the freshmen and 94 transfer students.

Fig. 1 Morningside College Fall Enrollment

"Our enrollment has been steadily growing since 2001 as we strive to reach the ‘right size’ for Morningside, which is about 1,100 full-time students, including a class of some 300 freshmen,” said Morningside’s President John C. Reynders. “We seek to offer all of our students the best possible educational experience, and I believe that word is getting out to prospective students and their families.”

The freshman class represents the largest segment of the 1,204 full-time and part-time students enrolled at the college this fall. According to Registrar Mary Peshek, this number is expected to increase over the next month, because part-time enrollment includes graduate students, who still have a few weeks left to register for courses, unlike previous years. Currently, 167 graduate students have registered for fall classes in the college’s master of arts in teaching program.

Last fall at this time, the college had 1,176 full-time and part-time students enrolled.

Ninety-three percent of the freshman students live on campus. Sixty-one percent of them are from Iowa, and 22 percent are from Nebraska. Forty-five percent of the freshmen were referred by Morningside alumni through the Alumni Referral Program and received a scholarship because of this endorsement.

This fall’s student body represents 24 states and 11 countries. Twenty-three percent of the full-time students are from Sioux City, and 44 percent are from elsewhere in Iowa.

Morningside has 23 international students from Albania, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Taiwan, Yugoslavia, and Zimbabwe.