Attached is the Unofficial Fall 2024 Enrollment Report, effective August 15, 2024.
Please note that the use of gender and ethnicity headings aligns with the reporting requirements of IPEDS for official university reporting. Institutional Research provides all official data and reporting. All official data should come from Institutional Research.
Headcount and Credit Hour Information for Fall 2024
As of August 15, 2024, student credit-hour production is +4,293 credit hours (+4,871 undergraduate, -428 graduate, and –150 concurrent), an increase of 3.57%. As you will see below, when not including concurrent credit, we are seeing an increase of 3.69%. As a reminder, we exclude concurrent from many conversations, especially in credit-hour production, because the amount of tuition paid on concurrent enrollment is a significantly different number.
| Student Credit Hours | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Plus/Minus | Percentage +/- |
| Undergraduate Credit Hours | 110,267 | 105,396 | 4,871 | 4.62% |
| Graduate Credit Hours | 14,442 | 14,870 | -428 | -2.88% |
| Total Student Credit Hours (no concurrent) | 124,709 | 120,266 | 4,443 | 3.69% |
Heading into the weekend, our first-time, first-year cohort of freshmen is 2,200 for the fall semester – a 24.08% increase from last year. As a reminder, last year’s freshmen cohort finished at 1,731 (and a year ago it was 1,773).
| Student Type (Headcount) | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Plus/Minus | Percentage +/- |
| First-Time Incoming First-Year | 2,200 | 1,773 | 427 | 24.08% |
The current student headcount shows an overall increase of 156 students (+255 undergraduate, -72 graduate, – 27 concurrent), amounting to a 1.66% increase from the previous year.
Before the census, this report will include an update on UCA Commitment (which currently sits at 768) and its impacts on our freshman cohort. Throughout the recruitment season, our Admissions & Enrollment Services team has viewed great interest in UCA and what is offered for future students. While the list below is not all high schools we recruit within, here are just a few areas that have contributed to a 24% increase in our first-year cohort. The list below represents 695 students enrolled this year from these high schools compared to 374 a year ago.
| High School | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Difference | High School | Fall 2024 | Fall 2023 | Difference | |
| Greenbrier High School | 59 | 51 | 15.7% | Monticello High School | 8 | 3 | 166.7% | |
| Cabot High School | 93 | 79 | 17.7% | Paragould High School | 8 | 3 | 166.7% | |
| Bryant High School | 86 | 73 | 17.8% | Yellville Summit High School | 9 | 3 | 200.0% | |
| Searcy High School | 21 | 16 | 31.3% | Greenwood High School | 19 | 6 | 216.7% | |
| Harrison High School | 15 | 11 | 36.4% | Russellville High School | 45 | 13 | 246.2% | |
| Mountain Home High School | 20 | 13 | 53.8% | Heber Springs High School | 18 | 5 | 260.0% | |
| Morrilton High School | 15 | 9 | 66.7% | Highland High School | 8 | 2 | 300.0% | |
| Lonoke High School | 16 | 9 | 77.8% | Bald Knob High School | 5 | 1 | 400.0% | |
| Pleasant Grove High School | 9 | 5 | 80.0% | Beebe High School | 12 | 3 | 400.0% | |
| Nashville High School | 10 | 5 | 100.0% | Fountain Lake High School | 7 | 1 | 600.0% | |
| Sheridan High School | 32 | 16 | 100.0% | Murfreesboro High School | 7 | 1 | 600.0% | |
| Sylvan Hill High School | 38 | 17 | 123.5% | Nettleton High School | 8 | 1 | 700.0% | |
| Gosnell High School | 9 | 4 | 125.0% | Heritage High School | 19 | 2 | 850.0% | |
| White Hall High School | 22 | 9 | 144.4% | Dardanelle High School | 13 | 1 | 1200.0% | |
| Siloam Springs High School | 10 | 4 | 150.0% | Pottsville High School | 15 | 1 | 1400.0% | |
| Catholic High School | 15 | 6 | 150.0% | Arkansas High School | 16 | 1 | 1500.0% | |
| Mena High School | 8 | 0 | NA |
Retention and Student Success Information
Since the last report, we have retained our first-year students to their second year at UCA at 73.66%, down 0.33% from a year ago. Our underrepresented first-year student retention remains up 0.63% at 68.8%. The first-year to third-year retention rate at UCA stands at 62.26%, a decrease of 1.08% from last year’s rate of 63.34%.
>When considering fall-to-fall first-year student retention retaining to their sophomore year, the following are the top UCA performers over the last 20 years:
- Fall 2019 Cohort – 78.8% – This is the cohort where after the spring of 2020, we made exceptions for students to return to UCA due to the pandemic.
- Fall 2018 Cohort – 74.7%
- Fall 2021 Cohort – 74.2%
- Fall 2017 Cohort – 74.1%
- Fall 2023 Cohort – 73.66% – As of August 15, 2024
- Fall 2022 Cohort – 73.5%
As mentioned in previous weeks, we are having strong success in the first-year retention rate of students in their third year of enrollment.
- Fall 2019 Cohort retained to Fall 2021- 63.8% Retained
- Fall 2021 Cohort retained to Fall 2023 – 63.6% Retained
- Fall 2018 Cohort retained to Fall 2020- 63.5% Retained
- Fall 2017 Cohort retained to Fall 2019- 63.0% Retained
- Fall 2022 Cohort retained to Fall 2024 – 62.26% Retained – As of August 15, 2024
- Fall 2020 Cohort retained to Fall 2022 – 60.0% Retained
The next enrollment report will be available on Thursday, August 22.<