Dear Faculty and Staff Members,

Though the national college decision deadline of May 1st has come and gone, our work to enroll students for Fall 2022 continues throughout the summer. That said, I want to provide you with an update on our current projections for the fall.

Consistent with our Strategic Enrollment Plan and updated Leadership for a Changing World Strategic Plan, the university’s target enrollment over the next five years is 2,300 (undergraduates and graduates). Based on where we are today, we anticipate that between 400 and 420 first-time-in-college students will join Puget Sound in the fall, and that it will be our strongest academic class in the past five years. In addition to the highest academic quality, we have the highest population of first generation students in the past five years and, although modest, the largest number of international students since 2018.

The Enrollment team, along with partners across the campus community, worked hard all year long, which resulted in the highest application volume in the last four years and campus visits and event attendance that surpassed pre-pandemic levels. We are continuing to garner additional enrollments from our strong pool of applicants, including transfer students, and to retain those students who have already deposited. Current measures include:

  1. Proactively communicating with deposited students and their families throughout the summer, including a new student microsite to launch at the end of this month and a series of emails about what to expect and how to prepare to join the university in the fall.
  2. Academic Affairs and Student Affairs are hosting summer online sessions for all deposited students as we have done the previous two summers.  These sessions help students become acclimated to the university and establish contacts with faculty.
  3. Admission and Student Financial Services staff working proactively with enrolled families throughout the summer to provide the individual support they need to successfully enroll in the fall.
  4. Academic Advising staff following up with current students who have not yet registered for fall.

Beyond our undergraduate program, here is what we are seeing within our graduate programs:

  • OT and PT are on target to meet their enrollment goals in spite of an ever more competitive marketplace;
  • MEd is having a strong year;
  • MAT is managing through a complicated period for teachers in the COVID era. While down in applications, they have done an exceptional job yielding students with a smaller than typical applicant volume.
  • MPH continues to build up their pipeline. Similar to the MAT, they’ve achieved a strong yield on a relatively small pool.

As summer progresses and more is known about total projected enrollment in the fall, Vice President for Enrollment Matt Boyce will provide additional updates. 

For now, though, I want to recognize how our entire campus community came together to recruit new students to Puget Sound and support the success of current students, and we will continue this important work together. Our path forward through the Strategic Enrollment Plan and Leadership for a Changing World is clear and we are taking all the steps we need to in order to assure stable, long-term enrollment success.  I am grateful for the tireless work by each of you and our combined efforts together to support both new and continuing students, as well as one another, as we move forward in meeting our goals.

Sincerely,

Isiaah
Isiaah Crawford, Ph.D. | President