SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS ON THE RISE

Student applications to Southeast Missouri State University for the fall 2000 semester are up 1.5 percent over a year ago and 9.3 percent since 1997.

The increase comes even as the university copes with a smaller pool of prospective students in Southeast Missouri.

The St. Louis and Kansas City areas have seen growth in high school graduates interested in a post-secondary education. But it is different elsewhere in Missouri, said Southeast admissions director Jay Goff.

In an 11-county Southeast Missouri area from Perry County to the Arkansas line, a total of 1,325 graduating high school seniors have taken college-entrance or interest exams this year. That is down 224 from last year's prospective pool of 1,549 students.

The region includes Perry, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Scott, Stoddard, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin, Butler and Wayne counties.

Goff said the decrease is the first since 1997.

As of mid-April, Southeast had received 3,296 new-student applications, up from 3,248 a year ago. Goff said the figures include applications from prospective freshmen and transfer students.

In 1997, the figure was 3,017. In 1998, applications through mid-April stood at 3,087.

Most prospective students apply to several schools, sometimes as many as four or five, he said.

Some prospective students initially contact the school over the Internet. "We get about 30 to 40 e-mails a day from students that contact us over the Internet," he said.

Goff said the number of prospective college students in Missouri is expected to fluctuate over the next few years with modest growth anticipated from 2003 to 2008. After that it is expected to decrease again.

"Our new-student enrollment looks to remain steady or grow slightly even though there are less students in the immediate region to draw from," he said.

Nationwide, college enrollment is expected to climb as "baby busters" or children of baby boomers reach college age.

The National Center for Education Statistics predicts the number of college students in the nation will reach 16.3 million by 2009, an increase of 9.7 percent from last fall's enrollment.

Washington University, a nationally known private school in St. Louis, had received 18,645 new student applications through mid-April, up 9 percent from a year ago. But Goff said many of Washington University's students come from out of state. Last year only 165 of the school's 1,476 freshmen or 11 percent came from the Show Me State.

It's a different story at Southeast where 84 percent of the school's students come from Missouri.

Goff said 16 percent of Southeast's students come from outside the state with the majority of those coming from Illinois.

Thirty-seven percent of last year's freshman class came from the St. Louis area, and 47 percent came from Southeast Missouri and other parts of the state, he said.