Enrollment up for summer, fall quarters
Seattle Central exceeds enrollment targets for the past two quarters despite recent trends
Seattle Central has seen its student enrollment climb for the summer and fall quarter, an encouraging sign given the last few years of steep enrollment declines. The college exceeded its state-funded enrollment target by approximately two percent for the recently completed summer quarter. This is the first time in several years that the college earned more than 100 percent of its target enrollment for in-state students.
This fall, enrollment was higher than the previous year as well. In addition to having 100 more state full-time equivalent students (FTES) over the previous fall, the college has also seen the number of Running Start students – those who are in high school and take courses here – double from 350 to almost 700 students this year. Bradley Lane, vice president of Instruction, attributes this increase in enrollment to activities undertaken by the Strategic Enrollment Management team to coordinate marketing, outreach, recruitment and retention of students. He also finds that more students are reporting the ease of commuting to campus on the light rail as a major draw for selecting the college.