Harold Martin, the chancellor of A&T, bragged about his
university being No. 1 in HBCU enrollment while he sat beside FAMU President
Elmira Mangum during a July 15, 2015 appearance before the Committee on
Agriculture in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“With nearly 11,000 students, A&T is recognized as the
largest among the nation’s historically black colleges and universities,”
Martin told the committee.
A&T topped FAMU in enrollment again during the Fall
2015. It had 10,852 students to the 9,920 at FAMU for a difference of 932.
Recovering from the Great Recession and Federal Financial Aid Changes
FAMU’s enrollment increased between the fiscal years that
ended in 2009 and 2011. But FAMU and many other HBCUs were hurt by stricter
eligibility requirements for the federal PLUS Loan program that went into
effect in October of 2011 and Pell Grant changes that began that same year.
Those changes resulted in thousands of low-income HBCU students being denied
this critical source of financial aid and either having to withdraw from school
or delay their entry into college.
The federal financial aid program overhaul led FAMU to lose
about 2,000 students. Declining state support and rising fees have made the
situation even worse for many potential FAMU students.
A&T is one of the HBCUs that is making steady gains in
recovering from the damage caused by the federal financial aid crisis. Its
enrollment increased by 1.6 percent in Fall 2014 and 1.2 percent in Fall 2015.
But the enrollment at FAMU has continued to go down.
FAMU and A&T Have Different Admissions Standards
FAMU and A&T do have different minimum admissions
standards for freshmen.
FAMU requires a minimum of a 2.50 GPA. Students who submit
SAT scores must have the following minimum scores: “Critical Reading=>460,
Mathematics=>460 and Writing=>440.” Students who submit ACT scores must
have “a minimum score of 19 or higher on the Reading section, 19 or higher on
the Mathematics section, and 18 or higher on the English/Writing section.”
Applicants who don’t have those scores or all of the
required high school courses can be admitted through the profile assessment
process. FAMU saw an increase in its percentage of First-Time-In-College (FTIC)
profile admits after a recent change to the SUS minimum admissions
requirements. Back in 2006, a new Florida law raised the mathematics
requirement for FTIC freshmen from three units at Algebra I or higher to four
units at Algebra I or higher.
A&T has more flexible admissions requirements. It requires
“satisfactory class rank or grade point average” and “satisfactory scores on
the Scholastic Assessment Test or the American College Test.”
A&T Leaders Getting the Job Done in Student Recruitment
But the rising enrollment at A&T appears to have more to
do with strong recruitment than anything else. According to the Greensboro News
and Record, applications to A&T have almost doubled this year.
The News and Record reported: “Cheryl Pollard-Burns,
A&T’s director of undergraduate admissions, said the university tried a few
new things this year. Admissions officers sought out Latino students and
African American males, two groups they say are underrepresented at A&T.
Only about 2 percent of A&T’s students are Latino; in 2014, only 41 percent
of applicants were men. A&T also is aggressively recruiting North Carolina
students. For a week in early November, A&T waived the $55 application fee
for all in-state applicants.”
FAMU’s enrollment isn’t currently on track to get better in
Fall 2016. At the March 10 FAMU Board of Trustees meeting, Trustee Nicole
Washington provided the report of the Student Affairs Committee. She said that fall
applications are about the same as this time last year. But she did add that
summer applications are up by 50 percent.
FAMU reported in March that its preliminary enrollment for Fall 2016 is 9,084.
A&T Using its Football Success in its Recruitment Strategy
The News and Record also reported that the A&T victory
in the first Celebration Bowl, which earned the school the unofficial HBCU
national football championship, brought lots of positive publicity to the
university that has helped recruitment. That contest was broadcast on ABC.
FAMU finished its 2015 football season in a four-way tie for
worst in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Back in 2014, FAMU Athletic Director Kellen Winslow, Sr.
fired then-Head Football Coach Earl Holmes just as his team was beginning to
show steady improvement. The team had won two out of its last three contests and with
the Homecoming game just four days away.
The 2015 Rattler football team under new Head Coach Alex
Wood started out even worse than the previous year by chalking up a 0-6 record
during its first games. It ended with a 1-10 record, which made it the first time in 72 years that FAMU won only one contest in an entire season.
A&T beat FAMU 28-10 in Bragg Memorial Stadium in 2015.