Rumors abound about freshman class size

By Shannon Curley
Collegian Reporter
September 13, 2006

There are several rumors circulating about this year’s incoming freshman class. One of these is that this class is extremely large, when compared to those in recent years.

According to Robert Voss, Dean of Admissions and Student Financial Services, though, that’s just not the case. “It’s not large. It’s a normal size freshman class. Last year was small. Last year we had 756 students,” he said.

This year’s junior class had 811 students coming in, and the seniors had 840, only slightly smaller than this year’s freshman class of 848.

Another rumor going around campus is that the University lowered the SAT requirements, accounting for the increase in enrollment. While this is also untrue, there have been some changes in regards to the College Board and the SATs.

“The SATs are lower for the incoming class than they were for last year’s class,” Voss said. But that does not mean that the class was not up to par. “Every indicator of academic quality in the applicant pool, grade point average and class ranks was better than they have been for a number of years. But the SATs weren’t.”

The reason for these statistics can most likely be attributed to the changes the College Board has made to the SATs.

“The SATs are lower because on this new test, in Pennsylvania, the average score on what used to be the verbal and the math, is down 11 points. In New Jersey, it’s minus nine. So SAT scores are lower because people are scoring lower on the test,” Voss said.

“What we think will occur in academic achievement in this freshman class is that [it will be] one of the strongest in recent years,” Voss said of the University’s expectations for the class of 2010.

Some students might have heard that the Academic Enrichment Program (AEP), had doubled this year. This rumor, while not entirely true, is not completely unfounded either. The Academic Enrichment Program is defined on La Salle’s Web site, as “an admissions category for students who, for one reason or another, do not meet La Salle’s normal admissions requirements but who the Admissions Office believes can, with extra support, succeed at La Salle.”

The program normally admits about 80 students, but this year it has about 96. According to Voss, this is mostly coincidental. This year, more students who were accepted into the AEP Program decided to attend La Salle.

What does all of this mean to the incoming freshman class? They seem unaware of any irregularities or supposed irregularities in their numbers, and are just beginning to settle into a new phase in their lives.

“It was definitely hard adjusting at first but after the first week, it felt more like home and became more fun,” said freshman Allison Pretak, who hails from upstate New York. “It’s a good school.”

curleys11@lasalle.edu