News        from ABAC

Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-5056 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE NOVEMBER 17, 2005

ABAC ENROLLMENT HIGHEST IN HISTORY OF COLLEGE

TIFTON-- It's official. The 2005 fall semester enrollment of 3,423 students is the highest in the 97-year history of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.  Interim President Tom Call couldn't be happier. “This is great,” Call said.

“Coming into fall semester, we knew the enrollment number would be high because we had the highest number of new student applications,” said Call.

ABAC is growing along with the University System of Georgia. This is the seventh consecutive year of growth in enrollment at the state’s public learning institutions. Enrollment during this period has increased by 53,540 students.

Two-year institutions in the System increased by 2.6 percent or 1,276 students this fall. ABAC’s total headcount for the 2005 fall semester climbed to a 1.8 percent increase from the fall 2004 year of 3,362 students.

ABAC’s full time student enrollment is 2,929, an increase of 2.8 percent over the fall 2004 semester number of 2,849. This number represents the largest sector of the total enrollment population.

A total of 860 students are living on campus this semester. Call said ABAC could have had at least 100 more students had the ABAC Place apartments not filled up so fast. “We are looking into building additional housing on the campus due to the demand by students,” Call said.

During the fall semester, 33 international students are enrolled, as well as 96 students from states other than Georgia. The total number of Georgia residents attending ABAC is 3,294. The college currently has 569 non-traditional students attending the institution.

ABAC’s enrollment is 57.8 percent female. However, in the University System as a whole, male enrollment surpassed female enrollment from fall 2004 to fall 2005. There was an increase of 1.5 percent or 1,511 for male students as opposed to a .9 increase or 1,382 of female enrollment in 2005.

A total of 1,056 new freshmen enrolled at ABAC for fall semester 2005. There was a record high enrollment of first-time freshmen for fall 2005 within the University System, totaling 39,960 students. That is an increase of 6.2 percent over fall semester 2004 and represents 81 percent of USG’s enrollment gain for fall 2005.

# # #