Students transferring to Cal State campuses for the Fall 2010 academic year may meet with some resistance, and with good reason according to the Cal State chancellor’s office.
Almost 100,000 applications have been received since they opened their priority application period on Oct. 1. Sue Granger-Dickson, director of transfer services at BC, expressed her concern at the heightened numbers.
“There’s no way the Cal State system can accept that many applications,” Granger-Dickson said. “On the first day alone, there were over 25,000 online applications received.”
In an e-mail, Allan Bee of CSU Chico said, “CSU is expecting a surge in applications as the state’s high rate of unemployment is producing many laid-off workers looking to return to school. That, coupled with the CSU’s need to reduce enrollment by 40,000 students over the next two years because of a $564 million budget cut, means more students and fewer slots.”
Jim Blackburn, director of student academic support at the CSU Chancellor’s office stated, “More than 41,000 of the 92,000 applications are for transfer admissions as compared with about 15,000 on a similar date in 2008.”
Locally, Cal State Bakersfield expects a rise in application numbers as well.
“Based on our trend, we expect anywhere from 7,000 to 9,000 applications for admission for the Fall 2010 academic year,” said Vikash Lakhani, office of Enrollment Management at CSUB. “We’re not an impacted campus, so it isn’t about how many students we can accept, it’s about how many we will accept.”
Bernard Vinovrski, associate vice president of Cal State Fresno, said they’ve already seen a 300 percent increase in the numbers of transfer applications received at their campus.
“Last year we received 14,000 total applications,” said Vinovrski. “At the end of November, I expect us to have between 15,000 to 16,000 applications.”
All 23 Cal State campuses close their priority application period Nov. 30 and will begin sorting through eligibility requirements and applications at that time.