The Student Life Center at SUNY Cortland (Photo provided by SUNY Cortland)
CORTLAND, N.Y. — SUNY Cortland reported a record high number of undergraduate admissions applications for the 2018-2019 fall semester, according to college officials.
A total of 13,285 undergraduate applications were completed and sent in this year. Of those numbers, SUNY Cortland will only enroll 1,271 students due to living accommodations and class availability.
Only second to last year’s highest enrollment year ever, SUNY Cortland’s Director of Communications, Frederic Pierce, attributes some of this to the various amenities offered at the college, such as the Student Life Center.
Pierce said enrollment numbers have been steadily increasing for the last decade, and the addition of the Excelsior Scholarship, which was introduced to New York State last year, has also led to an increase in applications. The scholarship allows for students to attend a SUNY or CUNY college—upon meeting the scholarships requirements—tuition-free.
“I think a big reason the Excelsior Scholarship is having an impact on the increase of applications and enrollment is because you compare tuition prices to any other colleges, and any SUNY school is a good deal, especially when you add availability of the excelsior programs. Cortland, like all the SUNY [schools], is a beneficiary of that,” Pierce said.
Pierce says he expects programs like secondary education, business economics, biology, and sports managements to continue to grow in the next several years.
“I think the decision to go to the college you want to go to is not usually just one single thing," he said. "Everyone prioritizes things differently, and everyone feels comfortable in many different areas. Cortland students appreciate the work/life balance. Students develop that here. One thing we’ve seen is that SUNY Cortland students are not only working hard but also playing hard.”
