C.W. Post Caps Freshman Class for Second Year in Row
Waiting List Established

July 19, 2005 - The C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University is headed toward yet another record enrollment for its freshman class. The University has announced that the incoming freshman class has been capped at 950 and, effective immediately, new Fall 2005 freshman applicants will be placed on a waiting list. University officials have said that the cap is necessary to preserve the small classes and personalized attention for which the C.W. Post Campus is known.

This marks the second consecutive year that the Campus has found it necessary to enact the cap, as it continues to break enrollment records. The entering class in 2004 was the largest in more than 20 years, and this year’s enrollment represents a continuation of that trend.

Applications for the Class of 2009 reached an all-time high of 5,300, according to Gary R. Bergman, Associate Provost for Enrollment Services at C.W. Post. More than 40 percent of the new freshmen will receive academic scholarships and grants that recognize outstanding academic achievement and high SAT scores. “The total number of academic scholarship recipients will again exceed 400 this September,” Bergman said.

The enteringclass includes more than 130 freshmen who took college-level courses for credit while still in high school as part of the S.C.A.L.E. and A.C.E. programs.

Meanwhile, the Campus’s residence halls are filled to capacity, leaping from 1,400 students five years ago to almost 2,000. There is a waiting list for Campus housing and the University has made arrangements for additional off-campus housing for students who apply for housing after August.

To meet the enrollment needs, a new classroom building and film studio called Kahn Alumni Hall will open in September and two former residence halls will be converted back to their original use.

University officials attribute the freshman enrollment boom to the construction of new facilities, elite accreditations, an active faculty of researchers and scholars,and a nationally recognized career placement center. Since 2002, the Campus has opened an $18 million recreation center (which accommodates over 63,000 student visits each year), invested $60 million to renovate its library, student dining hall, residence halls, science labs, faculty offices and new classrooms. Last year, the Campus opened the College of Management Learning Center, a million-dollar student financial learning hub.

The Campus also launched Long Island’s first bachelor’s degree in forensic science and enrollment for that program is nearing 50 students for the Fall semester.

It is expected that approximately 200 new freshmen will enroll in the Access Program, a comprehensive career and academic counseling program for students undecided about their major area of study. Other freshmen have chosen majors such as teacher education, psychology, criminal justice, business administration, forensic science, accounting, biology, film, electronic media (broadcasting), physical education and music education.

“We are again seeing a record number of students enrolling locally, from Nassau, Suffolk and Queens,” said Bergman. “Staying closer to home is becoming more and more popular.” Also, the class will include students from over 35 states and approximately 50 countries. In addition to the freshman class, the C.W. Post Campus is expected to enroll more than 250 upperclassmen from Southampton College as well as more than 600 new transfer students and 900 new graduate students. Positions for transfer and graduate students are still available for the Fall 2005 semester.