Following a nearly five percent increase in overall student enrollment for fall 2023 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, retention of new, first-time, full-time, bachelor’s degree-seeking students from fall 2023 to fall 2024 has climbed to 75.3 percent, a more than four percentage point increase from fall 2022 to fall 2023 retention of that group.
This increase in retention follows a 90.1 percent retention rate of new, first-time, full-time bachelor’s degree-seeking students for the fall 2023 to spring 2024 semester, the highest fall-to-spring retention rate for a group of new, first-time students since 2010.
“One of my presidential goals is that IUP becomes so adept at student-centeredness that we keep every student who comes to IUP,” IUP President Michael Driscoll said. “While we are not there yet, these increases in retention in the spring and fall semesters show that we are on the right track,” he said.
“Strategic Advisor to the President for Student Success Paula Stossel and the student success team are doing an incredible job in leading this work, but everyone has a role to play. Success only happens when everyone has a renewed focus on supporting our students,” President Driscoll said.
IUP’s student success infrastructure provides data-driven, proactive direct support to all students in all programs, at all levels, and at all sites. Providing this direct support are navigators, who are frontline, full-time staff members who work with faculty, staff, academic advisors, and other campus resources, including the newly established advising center in the University College, to assist students with their personal and academic journey.
“Increasing retention is challenging because every student’s circumstance is unique; there is no one-size-fits-all approach or solution,” Stossel said. “All of us—our data team, the academic advising center, student success leadership, and the navigators—work collaboratively with the entire IUP community to understand students as individuals, and to partner with faculty and staff to remove barriers to success, assist students in problem solving, and in developing the skills they need to be successful in their IUP journey,” Stossel said.
Total student enrollment across all programs and at all levels for fall 2024 is 9,081:
- 7,011 students in undergraduate programs, including 1,742 new, first-time students
- 1,720 students in graduate programs — 1,090 in IUP’s 35 master’s programs and 630 in nine doctoral programs
- 350 students enrolled in career preparation programs.
This is a 1.9 percent decline from fall 2023 total enrollment of 9,254. New, first-time student enrollment for fall 2024 is down by 12.9 percent from fall 2023 new, first-time student enrollment of 2,000.
Fall 2023 new, first-time student enrollment was a 16 percent increase from new, first-time student enrollment for fall 2022—the highest number of new, first-time students since 2018.
“We knew that overall enrollment, especially of new, first-time students, would be affected by the challenges presented by the changes in the FAFSA application process,” President Driscoll said. “We anticipated smaller numbers for this cohort and overall, but this decrease was buffered by our significant increases in retention and fall 2023 overall enrollment. And, in addition to the FAFSA issues, demographics have not changed: there are fewer high school graduates in our region.”
FAFSA, the free application for federal student aid, updated its forms and process for the 2024–25 academic year and the forms were released later than in the past. Once the forms were released, errors in the process and data were discovered, preventing IUP from providing new students with complete financial aid packages on a timely basis.
“However, our academic expectations of our new students has not changed, and this year’s new, first-time students continue to raise the bar in terms of academic quality,” President Driscoll said.
The new, first-time students entering IUP this fall reflect an increased average high school grade point average of 3.45, and a total of 78.6 percent of these new, first-time students graduated from high school with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. This compares to the fall 2023 cohort average high school grade point average of 3.42, with 74 percent of this group graduating with a 3.0 grade point average or higher.
Fall 2024 enrollment also includes a 50 percent increase in dual enrollment students and increases in three career preparation programs: an 18.7 percent increase in enrollment in the paramedic program, an 11 percent increase in enrollment at the Academy of Culinary Arts, and a 2.5 percent increase in enrollment in the school officer training program.
There are 155 students in dual enrollment enrolled for fall 2024; fall 2023 dual enrollment students numbered 103. The fall enrollment is the highest dual enrollment number in the history of the university. The dual enrollment program allows qualified high school students to take IUP courses while still in high school for academic credit toward their bachelor’s degree.
IUP’s career-preparation programs and enrollment for fall 2024 are: Academy of Culinary Arts, 141 students; the paramedic program, 38 students; the Criminal Justice Training Center, 18 students; the Emergency Medical Program, 47 students; and the school resource officer training program, 41 students.
International student enrollment includes 373 international students from 63 countries, including 58 students enrolled in the American Language Institute. For the past 40 years, IUP’s ALI has provided intensive English programs for students from all over the world who want to improve their language proficiency and cultural understanding of the United States.
There are 834 veteran and military-affiliated students enrolled for fall 2024. Of this number, 803 students are in undergraduate or graduate programs, with an additional 31 in career-preparation programs.
IUP opened its Military Resource Center (now the Military and Veterans Resource Center) in spring 2014, working collaboratively with IUP programs and services to provide one-stop information to help these students transition to college life and achieve their academic goals.
A total of 1,721—or 19 percent of total fall enrollment—identify as minority, comparable with fall 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020 fall figures. Overall, 23 percent of the IUP student body identifies as international or minority.
Fall enrollment includes 541 domestic, out-of-state students from 49 states outside Pennsylvania, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A total of 162 new, first-time students for fall 2024 are from Indiana County.
A total of 2,842 students are in university housing for fall 2024, up from fall 2023 occupancy of 2,816, and 42 percent of students who lived on campus during the 2023–24 academic year are continuing to live in university housing. The number of students enrolled in university meal plans this semester is the highest since fall 2019.
“Our new and continuing students are already fully engaged and enthusiastic about life at IUP,” IUP Vice President for Student Affairs Tom Segar said. “We had record numbers of students and organizations participate in IUP Day, our annual event to showcase our 200-plus clubs and organizations, and the number of students choosing to continue to live in university housing for a second, third, or fourth year also shows us that students want and value being part of our community,” he said.
“We know that families faced challenges in working with the FAFSA this year,” Vice President Segar said. “While some of these challenges are not ones that we can remedy, members of our Office of Financial Aid continue to work with our students and their families in order to correct any errors and to help students get accurate information about their financial aid as quickly as possible,” he said.
In 2023–24, IUP students were awarded more than $26 million in scholarships from the university in addition to state and federal aid, and more than $2 million in housing scholarships have been given annually to students since fall 2021. A total of 89 percent of fall 2024 new, first-time students were offered renewable merit scholarships averaging $3,494. IUP has frozen tuition and fees and meal costs since 2018, and housing costs have remained steady since 2016.
Effective this fall, IUP also reduced the overall cost of enrollment for dual enrollment students; under this new pricing structure, the per-credit cost (tuition and fees) for dual-enrolled students is $100 per credit.
The Punxsutawney Area College Trust (PACT), a longtime supporter of IUP and its students, funds all remaining costs for students from Punxsutawney Area High School, which permits them to enroll in classes at IUP Punxsutawney for free.