OSU-Cascades fall enrollment up nearly 4 percent

Oregon State University – Cascades is now serving a total of 1,157 undergraduate and graduate students, the school reported in its enrollment figures on Monday.

Included in this official fall enrollment count are 1,016 students taking classes at OSU-Cascades — including a cohort of 60 first-ever freshmen — as well as 141 dually-admitted students taking classes at Central Oregon Community College in preparation for transferring to OSU-Cascades.

The branch campus’s official enrollment report represents a nearly 4 percent increase in total OSU-Cascades students and a 7 percent increase in undergraduate degree-seeking students. Graduate enrollment increased by 4.5 percent this fall. Non-degree seeking students declined, as more students chose to pursue a degree.

The figures also represent a 10 percent increase in full-time equivalents, as students increasingly take full-time course loads. About 80 percent of students are enrolled full-time, including dually-enrolled students.

The ethnic diversity of the student body increased to 17 percent, with almost half of those students identifying as Hispanic.

OSU-Cascades continues to draw students primarily from Central Oregon and Oregon, although 6 percent of students represent California and 22 other states.

The increase spread across majors, with the largest majors now reported as business administration including accounting, human development and family sciences, biology, natural resources, energy systems engineering, kinesiology and psychology. The recently launched computer science degree increased from 17 students to 43 students this fall.

The largest graduate program is the counseling degree program with 60 students. The Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing, now in its third year, continues to grow increasing from 18 to 24 students this fall.

OSU-Cascades is also serving an additional 82 Central Oregon students who are taking all of their courses online through OSU’s Ecampus.

The percentage of female students is leveling at 53 percent of the student body. Women comprised about 70 percent of the student population through 2010. The average age of an OSU-Cascades student is 29. The youngest enrolled student is 18; the oldest is 76.

This fall marks the last academic year that students will take classes in Cascades Hall on the Central Oregon Community College campus.

Beginning fall 2016, undergraduate students will take classes on OSU-Cascades’ new campus, currently under construction near downtown Bend. Graduate students will continue to take classes at the Graduate & Research Center, a half-mile from the new campus.

Oregon State University’s overall 2015 fall term enrollment grew 2.4 percent over last year, with stable enrollment on the Corvallis campus and continued growth in online learning through OSU’s nationally ranked Ecampus distance degree program.

Oregon State’s overall enrollment is 30,592 students, making OSU the largest university in the state of Oregon for the second year in a row, officials said.

OSU officials say there are 24,466 students at the university’s main campus in Corvallis, an increase of 3/10ths of one percent, or 83 students, from fall 2014. Oregon State has enrolled 5,110 students in Ecampus this term, an increase of 607 students or 13.5 percent over last year.

“This is right in line with Oregon State’s strategic plan to serve as Oregon’s university, as well as with our enrollment management plan,” said OSU President Edward J. Ray. “Three out of four degree-seeking undergraduate students on our Corvallis campus are Oregon residents, and we continue to attract high-achieving students. Among first-time college students from Oregon high schools, 41.6 percent are considered high-achievers (with a grade point of 3.75 or higher).”

Ray said he was particularly pleased in the continued growth in enrollment of U.S. minority students, an increase of 6.9 percent from 6,320 students in 2014 to 6,754 this fall.