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Where freshman applicants to CU-Boulder enroll

Lou McClelland, CU-Boulder Planning, Budget, and Analysis
May 2008

Each year, roughly 20,000 students apply to CU-Boulder for admission as new fall freshmen.

Some are not admitted; this includes some who never submitted complete credentials for consideration.

Of those admitted, roughly half of Colorado residents, and one in four from out of state, enroll at CU-Boulder in the fall.

Where do those admits who don’t enroll at CU-Boulder, and the non-admits, actually enroll?

Using data from the Student Tracker facility of the National Student Clearinghouse, we characterize the first enrollment of the 11,912 fall 2007 freshman applicants who were not admitted or did not enroll at CU-Boulder, but who were located in Clearinghouse records. This is 84% of the 14,173 names we submitted to Student Tracker. Click here for details on and limitations of the Clearinghouse data.

The 11,912 students enrolled in 894 different colleges and universities; over half of these enrolled only one, two, or three students from our list. The 894 schools are in all 50 states.

We categorized the many colleges and universities as

• Private, public and in the student’s home state, public but not in the student’s home state
• 2-year vs. 4-year. 4-year includes universities with graduate work like CU-Boulder
• In Colorado or not.

Non-residents applicants offered admission to but not enrolling at CU-Boulder enroll in roughly equal numbers at private colleges and universities, publics in their home state, and publics in other states. A total of 5% enroll somewhere in the State of Colorado.

Residents offered admission to but not enrolling at CU-Boulder enroll in public colleges and universities in Colorado (44%), private colleges and universities (39%, including 8% at privates in Colorado), and in publics in other states (17%). 3% enroll in 2-year schools. Just over half enroll somewhere in Colorado.

Non-resident applicants not offered admission to CU-Boulder have enrollment patterns similar to non-resident admits, with higher proportions enrolling in 2-year schools (11%, vs. 3% of admits) and elsewhere in Colorado (11%). Resident applicants not offered admission enroll predominantly at other Colorado publics (79%), also with 11% attending 2-year schools.

Summary for minority applicants, fall 2007 (Word)

More detailed analyses have been provided for internal CU-Boulder management.

PBA ref: L:\datalib\Clearinghouse\DA-DeclinedAdmissions\Fall07FroshOvv.doc

Last revision 06/17/08