Enrollment trends at directional state schools in Texas

[MooseLodge]

Undergraduate, 2018 and 2023

Angelo State, 8600, 9000
Midwestern, 5000, 4600
Lamar, 8800, 8200
SFA, 11,300, 9800
Tarleton, 11,100, 11,900
Commerce, 8,100, 7100
Kingsville, 7,000, 4800
TWU, 9700, 9700
Texas Tyler, 7300, 7000
WT A&M, 7400, 6900

The big shockers are Commerce and SFA. The only LSC state school with growth is Angelo State, at 4.6%. Nice!

[ASUPops]

Undergraduate, 2018 and 2023

Angelo State, 8600, 9000
Midwestern, 5000, 4600
Lamar, 8800, 8200
SFA, 11,300, 9800
Tarleton, 11,100, 11,900
Commerce, 8,100, 7100
Kingsville, 7,000, 4800
TWU, 9700, 9700
Texas Tyler, 7300, 7000
WT A&M, 7400, 6900

The big shockers are Commerce and SFA. The only LSC state school with growth is Angelo State, at 4.6%. Nice!

The shocker to me is Kingsville. Wow. What a drop-off.

Tarleton has done very well with their move. And making profits off athletics. Compared to Commerce & SFA.

For the life of me, I can understand why Commerce is not booming!. They are only 1 hour from Dallas, Plano, Frisco, Allen. And 35-40 minutes from Rowlett, Rockwall, Fate, Royse City, etc.... However, I see ZERO advertisement from Commerce in these areas. I did see billboards for Angelo State and Tarleton. 🤷🏽♂️

[CalifOKRA]

Undergraduate, 2018 and 2023

Angelo State, 8600, 9000
Midwestern, 5000, 4600
Lamar, 8800, 8200
SFA, 11,300, 9800
Tarleton, 11,100, 11,900
Commerce, 8,100, 7100
Kingsville, 7,000, 4800
TWU, 9700, 9700
Texas Tyler, 7300, 7000
WT A&M, 7400, 6900

The big shockers are Commerce and SFA. The only LSC state school with growth is Angelo State, at 4.6%. Nice!

Do you have a link to an article? I’d be interested in reading about this.
I earned my MBA last month from Angelo State. So over the last year and a half, I’ve been paying attention to the LSC.

I played at Delta State in the mid 2000’s. Delta’s enrollment has dropped significantly over the last decade.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

Issue I have with those stats is we have no way of knowing if these downward trends would have happened without COVID.

[MooseLodge]

Do you have a link to an article? I’d be interested in reading about this.
I earned my MBA last month from Angelo State. So over the last year and a half, I’ve been paying attention to the LSC.

I played at Delta State in the mid 2000’s. Delta’s enrollment has dropped significantly over the last decade.

Undergraduate Enrollment Dashboard - THECB Data (texas.gov)

[MooseLodge]

Issue I have with those stats is we have no way of knowing if these downward trends would have happened without COVID.

COVID changed a lot of things, and college enrollment was likely among them. In addition, with a lot of college moving online, there exists now a "race to the bottom" in price. Kind of like the Amazon effect except for colleges. If I am going to get a degree online, I might be tempted to find the cheapest one. If I can get my BBA at Western Illinois for $5,000 cheaper than Lamar, done deal. Also, there are fewer kids enrolling college for two reasons: 1) They see it as not as important as it once was, and 2) there are not as many 18-year-olds as there once were. This will accelerate in the next 5 years, as the birthrates during the Great Recession plummeted.

Adding salt to the wound, with all of the screw-ups with the "new" FAFSA, enrollments this fall are expected to be down at most universities, as many kids can't get their funding in time.

There will be a lot of schools closing in the next few years due to all of the pressures outlined above.

[MooseLodge]

The shocker to me is Kingsville. Wow. What a drop-off.

Tarleton has done very well with their move. And making profits off athletics. Compared to Commerce & SFA.

For the life of me, I can understand why Commerce is not booming!. They are only 1 hour from Dallas, Plano, Frisco, Allen. And 35-40 minutes from Rowlett, Rockwall, Fate, Royse City, etc.... However, I see ZERO advertisement from Commerce in these areas. I did see billboards for Angelo State and Tarleton. 🤷🏽♂️

Yeah I would expect any school within an hour or so of the metroplex to be growing, if nothing else as a bi-product of the metroplex growth. But even North Texas is only up 5 precent, and Texas Arlington has actually declined a few percent. Things are going to get worse before they get better - the "enrollment cliff" is still approaching.

[MooseLodge]

I left out a few. UTPB, 4700,4300. UTD, 19,600, 21,300. Sam Houston, 18,500,18200.

And my goodness, what's happened at A&M Corpus Christi? 9500 to 7600. Wholly smokes. 20 percent haircut.

[TexanFan]

Undergraduate, 2018 and 2023

Angelo State, 8600, 9000
Midwestern, 5000, 4600
Lamar, 8800, 8200
SFA, 11,300, 9800
Tarleton, 11,100, 11,900
Commerce, 8,100, 7100
Kingsville, 7,000, 4800
TWU, 9700, 9700
Texas Tyler, 7300, 7000
WT A&M, 7400, 6900

The big shockers are Commerce and SFA. The only LSC state school with growth is Angelo State, at 4.6%. Nice!

Tarleton 2023 info is incorrect. It’s 16,230.
https://www.tarleton.edu/news/once-a...llment-record/

[UCObluejay]

Tarleton 2023 info is incorrect. It’s 16,230.
https://www.tarleton.edu/news/once-a...llment-record/

That puff piece (all institutions are guilty of that) only mentions total number of students. The statistics above only are in regards to undergraduate enrollment per the title. I imagine what it means is full-time undergraduate but I am only assuming that part.

Edit: 2K graduate students and 1.5 K concurrent enrollment students are 3.5K of that right there.

[ASUPops]

Yeah I would expect any school within an hour or so of the metroplex to be growing, if nothing else as a bi-product of the metroplex growth. But even North Texas is only up 5 precent, and Texas Arlington has actually declined a few percent. Things are going to get worse before they get better - the "enrollment cliff" is still approaching.

IMO, I believe a lot of rural and smaller town kids, and some inner-city kids are passing up universities for trade schools.

Mechanic and repair trades schools saw an 12.6% increase between 2022 & 2023. Construction trades trades rose 19.3%.
https://drhscordnews.com/8891/featur...ir%20education.

America has changed and is never going back.

[Purple Mav Man]

I left out a few. UTPB, 4700,4300. UTD, 19,600, 21,300. Sam Houston, 18,500,18200.

And my goodness, what's happened at A&M Corpus Christi? 9500 to 7600. Wholly smokes. 20 percent haircut.

They need another basketball run to get another million applicants.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

IMO, I believe a lot of rural and smaller town kids, and some inner-city kids are passing up universities for trade schools.

Mechanic and repair trades schools saw an 12.6% increase between 2022 & 2023. Construction trades trades rose 19.3%.
https://drhscordnews.com/8891/featur...ir%20education.

America has changed and is never going back.

Agree with a lot of comments above but this one stands out the most and in my mind is the most accurate.

Unless my kids really finish up at the top of their class then hello student loan city.

I joined that student loan party for decades and that sucked the huge one.

My daughter is talking about going to hair stylist school and with high schools offering dual diploma/associates degrees at graduation she could start that path at 17 with no debt.

[Purple Mav Man]

Issue I have with those stats is we have no way of knowing if these downward trends would have happened without COVID.

Why is that an issue? COVID happened, so why wonder what if? And it was 4 years ago now, that’s enough time to right the ship if that were the driving factor.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

I left out a few. UTPB, 4700,4300. UTD, 19,600, 21,300. Sam Houston, 18,500,18200.

And my goodness, what's happened at A&M Corpus Christi? 9500 to 7600. Wholly smokes. 20 percent haircut.

Just a 100% guess but having D1 competition from IW, UTSA, and UTRGV may have something to do with that as well as the other COVID related reasons mentioned above.