Enrollment climbing to record

UTRGV is on track to break records in overall and new entering freshman enrollment, preliminary figures show.

As of last Wednesday, 29,421 students were enrolled in Fall 2019 classes at the university, said Magdalena “Maggie” Hinojosa, vice president for Strategic Enrollment.

“We expect another record-breaking year for UTRGV enrollment,” Hinojosa wrote in an email to The Rider on Aug. 13.  “It is an exciting time to be part of our Vaquero family and we are ready to begin another academic year.”

A total of 5,662 new entering freshmen are enrolled, the largest in UTRGV’s history, she said.

Hinojosa said enrollment figures are still preliminary and include all undergraduate and graduate students at UTRGV.

Official numbers will not be available until the 12th day of class known as Census Day, which is the last day to drop classes.

Last fall semester’s official enrollment was 28,489, according to the UTRGV Office of Strategic Analysis and Institutional Reporting, putting this semester at about 900 more students.

On average, undergraduate students are enrolled in 12.6 credit hours per semester. The most popular undergrad studies are biology, criminal justice, interdisciplinary studies, nursing and psychology.

Hinojosa said there is a 5% increase in new entering freshmen since Fall 2018 and an 11% increase in new transfer students. 

Starting this semester, the Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship is offering a new Hospitality and Tourism Management minor for undergraduates. At the graduate level, the new programs are master’s in business analytics, biochemistry, molecular biology, bioethics and a doctorate in clinical psychology.

Enrollment in the Graduate College was 3,629, which is 215 more than last fall. Of those registered, 400 are new students, according to Parwinder Grewal, executive vice president of Research and Graduate Studies.

Seventy graduate students are pursuing doctoral degrees and the rest are in master’s programs.

Graduate student enrollment has increased by about 10% since last fall.

“From [Spring] 2017, we began to see an increase and hope to get to about 3,700 students this fall,” Grewal said. “We still have a few weeks and [are] working hard to get students enrolled.”

Of the 55 master’s offered at UTRGV, the most popular are business administration, public affairs, health sciences and social work. The leading doctoral studies of the five offered are educational leadership and rehabilitation counseling.

“We also offer a brand-new MBA in Spanish so that people who want to take an MBA program fully in Spanish can enroll from this fall,” Grewal said. “We are seeing quite a bit of interest in this program from Mexico and also from other Latin American countries.”

Some of the incentives that the Graduate College offers to increase enrollment include scholarships, eliminating the application fee and providing students who take the Graduate Record Examination and Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, a reimbursement after they are admitted to UTRGV.

New graduate students enrolling this semester will receive a $1,000 scholarship if they are admitted unconditionally, meaning they have a minimum GPA of 3.0.

The Presidential Graduate Research assistantship, which covers 100% of tuition, will be offered to about 60 graduates entering this fall.

“We are open for business; people can still apply for the fall semester,” Grewal said, referring to the Graduate College’s rolling admissions, which means students can enroll anytime during the year and be admitted to the nearest semester. “We have very good staff at the Graduate College who will help you complete your application. … So, if people are interested [in] the $1,000 scholarship, they should apply right away.”

Among those enrolled at UTRGV this semester is computer science senior Luis Tamborrell.

Asked why he decided to enroll at UTRGV, Tamborrell replied, “Because it was close to home, pretty inexpensive and had a good program for me.”

His advice for fellow and prospective UTRGV students is to start off with the basics and enroll in at least four classes per semester.

“Being able to study while still being close to family” is what being a UTRGV Vaquero means to him, Tamborrell said.