ABERDEEN, S.D. (Press Release) – Presentation College (PC) just released the private institution’s fall enrollment and reported 222 new students across all undergraduate, graduate, and online programs. This is an increase of 69 new students from last fall semester. The college is also seeing an upward trend in total student enrollment.
In total, PC has increased from 584 students in 2019 to 625 this current semester. Not only has the college had an increase in total students, but full-time equivalent (FTE) is up 7.65%.
“We have gone through a lot of changes as a school this past year to position ourselves to meet our goals in terms of enrollment. Nevertheless, like every other college across the country, we had no idea what the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic might be. Our students know that as part of the Saints Family, we are always here for them. We have a tremendously dedicated PC faculty and staff who have been stepping up in these tough times, as these results show,” said Dr. Paula Langteau, Presentation College President.
This year PC has achieved a healthy increase across many of its programs including a 6.7% growth in the Division of Nursing and an outstanding rise in the Division of Social Science and Humanities by adding 39 new students.
Dr. Marcus Garstecki, PC’s Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management said, “We are really excited about our enrollment numbers this fall. The college has an increase in on-campus students, as well as the number of students taking online courses. The college has implemented several new recruitment and marketing strategies and those efforts are really paying off for the college. PC saw an increase in new on-campus students during the spring semester and now this fall we surpassed our target for total students. The results are a credit to the efforts of our staff and faculty who made this happen through their hard work. The impact of COVID-19 certainly made student recruitment more challenging, but our great team continued to develop personal relationships with these students while conveying the value of our academic programs and the PC experience.
Dr. Garstecki added, “While our enrollment numbers are strong the most exciting part is that our students, faculty, and staff are back on campus together. This has been our goal since the start of the pandemic.” Overall, as a private college in the Midwest, PC has shown great resilience in a year of uncertainty with COVID-19 and the challenges the pandemic brought. Not only has the college remained open to face-to-face classes but has also started all four fall athletic seasons including football, volleyball, and both men’s and women’s soccer. The current student population at the school has many people optimistic about the growth of the college.