PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As colleges and universities prepare to make decisions on fall admissions, many are experiencing a surge in first-generation college student applicants.
So far, roughly 33,000 students have applied for fall admission at Temple University so far. Around 5,000 first-year students will be selected.
But most surprising, there has been a 26% increase in first-generation applicants this year.
Temple is not alone.
According to Common Application, a nonprofit membership organization representing more than 900 colleges and universities, first-gen applicants rose by an average of 20% from the 2019-20 academic year.
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The COVID-19 pandemic hindered universities, but particularly more vulnerable learners, like low-income or first-gen students. Looking forward, Jenny Rickard, president and CEO of Common App, is hopeful that the process is moving in the right direction.
“I think colleges and universities, as well as secondary schools and community organizations, really rallied to try to both support and eliminate the barriers that prevent first-generation college students from applying,” said Rickard.
“A lot of those changes and practices from colleges and universities — being more proactive about waiving fees, about finding creative ways to reach out to first-generation college students and to support them in the process — I think have had an impact.”
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Temple is also seeing another interesting trend: a 30% increase in the number of international applicants.
“That might be a little bit more of a reflection of the hopefully weaning effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, just the world getting back to a little bit more of a sense of normalcy,” said Shawn Abbott, Temple vice provost for admissions, financial aid and enrollment management.
Common App’s latest data reflects the same — the number of international applicants has increased at nearly triple the rate of domestic applicants since the 2019-20 academic year. The majority of international student applicants were from China, India, Canada, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Amid the first-gen surge, Abbott couldn’t determine the exact reason for the uptick at Temple.
“We can’t really figure that out,” he admitted. “I mean, we certainly have done more outreach to students in the city of Philadelphia. We are visiting more high schools. We are pretty liberal about waiving our application fee for students from low-income backgrounds, but to see a 20% to 25% increase in any particular population — whether you are talking about first-generation college students or people of color or students from a particular region — it is pretty unusual.”
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Temple’s first-year fall application deadline is around the corner, Feb. 1. Its application volume is tracking about 2% or 3% ahead of where it was last year at this time, according to Abbott.