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| 9/21/2009 12:48:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| MARCIAL GUAJARDO/Leader
Nikki Huneycutt and Tiara Washington chat outside the Texas State Round Rock Higher Education Center last week. Enrollment at the RRHEC has increased more than 14 percent over last year, officials announced recently. |
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| Edna Rehbein (standing) leads a class at the Texas State RRHEC last week. Enrollment at the campus is up. |
| | Going up: | Enrollment at Round Rock Higher Education Center:
• up 14.1 percent
Undergraduate enrollment:
• up 25 percent
1,737 total students enrolled at RRHEC
Texas State (all campuses) enrollment: up 1,711 students
Source: Texas State
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Come right in
More Texas State students attending local campus
The Texas State University Round Rock Higher Education Center student enrollment for the fall 2009 semester increased by 14.1 percent, with 1,737 students enrolled, compared to last year's enrollment, according to the university's 12th class day enrollment figures.
The fall 2009 enrollment is the highest enrollment the RRHEC has had since it opened in 2005, said RRHEC Executive Director Edna Rehbein. This year is the first year the RRHEC's undergraduate enrollment has surpassed its graduate enrollment, she said. The campus' undergraduate enrollment increased by 25 percent from last fall, she said.
"We're right on target to where we thought we'd be when this campus opened almost five years ago," Rehbein said. "We anticipated that the undergraduate enrollment was going to grow. The information has really gotten out that we are here and we have a lot to offer."
Some of the most popular undergraduate offerings at the RRHEC are psychology, criminal justice, mass communications and education, Rehbein said.
"Our classes here at the higher education center are convenient, the parking is easy to find and you don't have to travel through high-demand traffic areas to get to the campus," Rehbein said. "We're a busy campus at night with our classrooms being completely full at night."
About two to three years ago, RRHEC officials began the "Getting Started" early advising process for students who had less than 60 hours and had not achieved junior-level status to prepare them for junior- and senior-level classes. RRHEC students take their freshman- and sophomore-level classes through Austin Community College and take their junior and senior classes through Texas State.
"Students now feel like they are on the right track and ready for their Texas State classes," Rehbein said.
Texas State University-San Marcos also achieved record enrollment.
Texas State University-San Marcos' 12th class day enrollment reached 30,816, an increase of more than 1,700 students compared to the previous record of 29,105 set last fall, said Michael Heintze, associate vice president for enrollment management and marketing at Texas State University-San Marcos in a Sept. 16 news release.
"It has been a remarkable year and we feel fortunate that Texas State continues to grow in popularity among graduate and undergraduate students," Heintze said in the release. "This fall's freshman class of 3,667 is easily the largest and most diverse in Texas State's history."
Diversity among entering freshmen reached a record 36 percent, with 27 percent of the class being Hispanic students. A record 3,301 transfer students also enrolled. Overall, undergraduate enrollment rose 4.8 percent to 26,011.
The Graduate College also recorded a record enrollment of 4,198 - an increase of 12.1 percent over 2008.
Graduate enrollment at the RRHEC increased by 8.5 percent for the fall 2009 semester, Rehbein said. Some of the most popular graduate majors at the RRHEC are education, counseling, business administration, marketing management and computer science, she said.
"I am very pleased that so many outstanding students have chosen Texas State to continue their education," said Texas State president Denise Trauth in the Sept. 16 news release. "In the coming year, we will continue to work closely with our students, faculty and staff to address the challenges of a growing enrollment, and ensure that the academic experience of our students is not only preserved, but enhanced."
The opening of Austin Community College's Round Rock Campus in fall 2010 will allow the college and the RRHEC to serve thousands more students. Of the almost 40,000 students enrolled at any of the seven ACC campuses, 1,910 of those students are taking freshman and sophomore classes at the Round Rock Higher Education Center off University Boulevard this fall.
About 981 students were enrolled in classes at RRHEC in fall 2008, according to figures Austin Community College officials released in early September.
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