Dominican Receives Record Number of Applications for Freshman Admission

Last year the University received a total of 2,650 freshman applications for admission in fall 2005 and enrolled 227 freshmen. The University, which accepts applications throughout the year, anticipates enrolling 245 freshmen for the 2006-2007 academic year.

More than 930 students visited the campus during the summer Get Acquainted Day, the fall/winter Campus Visit Day recruitment events, and the February Admitted Student Open House this year as compared to the 776 students that visited the campus during the same events last year. The next on-campus recruitment event is the Admitted Student Open House held on March 25.

“We’ve had amazing attendance at every one of our admission events, and now we are seeing a record-breaking increase in the number of freshman applications for the fall 2006-2007 entering class,” says David Behrs, Vice President for Student Life & Enrollment Management. “We also are seeing a significant number of applications from student leaders, including class presidents, honor roll students, and All-American caliber student athletes.”

Thanks to targeted marketing efforts, the University is seeing an increase in applications from throughout California, as well as from New York, Colorado, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. Popular programs at Dominican include business administration, biology/chemistry, nursing, and psychology. Dominican is seeing strong interest in its newer programs, including the new BFA in dance offered in conjunction with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. Dominican’s athletics program also is a draw, with a large number of applications coming from high school student-athletes who participate in sports offered at Dominican, including basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, and soccer.

Geographically in California, the increase in freshman applications is greatest from residents of Central California (+40.3 percent); Northern California (+25.6 percent); the San Francisco Bay Area (Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties) (+23.1 percent); and Southern California (+18.4 percent). 

States from which the University annually receives the most freshman applications are Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. Freshmen applications from these states are up 130.2 percent from this time last year.

This growth has been both anticipated and carefully planned. In recent years the University has added new facilities, including the Conlan Recreation Center in 2000 and the Edgehill Village residential halls in 2002. Last November, Dominican broke ground on a 35,000 square foot science and technology center, which will contain more than 30 classrooms and state-of-the art science and computer technology laboratories.

The University’s raised profile also can be attributed to the increased visibility of its faculty and student body. In the past year, Dominican students have won several prestigious scholarships, including awards from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United Negro College Fund, and The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Last summer, students won competitive paid internships to Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Stanford Medical School, UCSF Medical School, Dartmouth Medical School, NASA, and Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Dominican’s men’s basketball team recently captured its fourth consecutive California Pacific Conference championship. The team also boasted an NAIA All-American player.  Four members of the women’s basketball team were named All-American Scholar Athletes this year. In the fall, the men’s soccer team won the Cal Pac Championship with an undefeated season. Eight players were named to the All-Conference team. The women’s volleyball team also was highly ranked in the Cal Pac Conference, with four players named to the All-Conference team.

Supported by undergraduate research/scholarship grants, students are participating in academic conferences throughout the United States. Dominican learned this week that 20 abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 20th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), which will be held April 6 through April 8 at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Dominican students recently presented their work at the 13th Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu.

Supported by faculty research grants, Dominican faculty members are presenting their work at academic conferences both in the United States and overseas. Recently faculty have presented at conferences in Brazil, Japan, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Ecuador.

Spring enrollment at Dominican stands at 1,879 graduate and undergraduate students, up from 1,805 the same time last year.