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| FAMU freshmen students attending 2018 summer orientation |
The admitted freshmen are those who have been offered admission to FAMU. FAMU won't know the GPA average for its enrolled students until the Fall 2018 registration deadline on August 26, 2018.
Robinson commented on the statistic after BOG Vice-Chair Sydney Kitson asked him about the slide in the freshman GPA average between 2016 and 2017 and the work that needs to be done to increase the six-year graduation rate and to reduce student debt.
“Should you be growing at all at this time instead of just being laser focused on those issues?” Kitson asked.
Robinson explained that the slide in the GPA average for enrolled freshmen was only 0.15 between 2016 and 2017. For Fall 2016, the GPA average for the enrolled freshman class was 3.54. The drop in students in 2016-2017 added to the more than $19.8 million FAMU lost in tuition and fees due to enrollment declines since 2012-2013.
FAMU then reversed its enrollment decline in Fall 2017 with a freshman class that had a 3.39 GPA average and SAT scores above the state and national averages for high school students.
The president said that the 3.5+ GPA average for admitted students for Fall 2018 shows that the university is continuing to do well in recruiting strong students at the same time that it is growing enrollment.
“When I say increasing the academic profile of our students, I’m talking about the average GPA, SAT, and ACT scores,” Robinson said. “Our growth is primarily, as I said, in other areas. The marginal amount that we think is going to come from FTICs [first time in college students] will be complemented more so by retention as well as what we’re doing, I think very importantly, with the state college system.”
“We are increasing the graduation rates,” Robinson. “We are the increasing retention rates. So the things we are doing at the university are in fact working. And I think with a continued focus on those we can accommodate this marginal growth in FTIC students.”