The first admissions report of the 2017-18 recruiting season shows Iowa State’s Greenlee School—the largest academic program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences—on track for another banner year, with 57 accepts as opposed to 56 accepts in January 2016.
Last year’s prospective student recruitment boosted Fall 2016 enrollment to a total 844 undergraduate degree majors in Advertising, Journalism and Public Relations, a record metric. The School’s total enrollment has grown 38% in the past five years.
Of the 57 prospective incoming students, Advertising is down 2 students from 2016 at 11; Journalism, up 3 at 36; and Public Relations steady at 10.
Despite graduating 50 majors in December (18 Advertising, 15 Journalism, 17 PR), the School boasts 810 majors enrolled at the start of the Spring 2017 semester. The breakdown is as follows:
Advertising, 194 primary and 18 secondary majors, for a total of 212; Journalism, 284 primary and 27 secondary, 311; and Public Relations 260 primary and 27 secondary, 287.
Psychology is the second largest academic program in LAS with 778 majors, followed by Computer Science with 523.
In recruitment efforts, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, Director Michael Bugeja works closely with Raluca Cozma, undergraduate director; Daniela Dimitrova, director of graduate education; Michael Dahlstrom, associate director; Alyssa Rutt, progrm coordinator; and Academic Adviser Jessica Hansen. The School sends letters and packets to high school and college advisers, hosts prospective student days and socials, and maintains prospective student and graduate websites.
Also recognized is the role of Greenlee ambassadors, the School’s top students who act as hosts during prospective student visits, interacting with high schoolers and their parents to make them feel part of the program before they decide on a university.
The School also credits alumni and donors for providing scholarships for current and incoming students, to offset debt. The School awarded $210,000 in scholarships last year with a substantial portion of that going to new students to jump-start their academic careers as soon as they arrive on campus.
Another key feature in high Greenlee enrollment is placement rates and timely graduation. For the past five years, between 95% and 99% of Greenlee graduates have found employment, with 47% of those remaining in Iowa in the latest surveys.
The School’s curricula features lower and upper core courses with most other courses serving as electives with as few pre-requisites as possible, to facilitate timely graduation. Latest exit surveys show that seniors needed an average 7.75 semesters to graduate, or less than 4 years.
You can find more statistics about the Greenlee School on its transparency website.