By Matt Rabey
Applications for Ontario universities have been on the rise, but none more so than Laurentian University.
Dominic Giroux, Laurentian University president stated, “Applications from Ontario secondary school students are up 25 per cent at Laurentian University for next September, the highest increase in the province, compared with 4.6 per cent province-wide.”
The university closest to Laurentian University in the province was Toronto-based Ryerson University, which saw its application numbers grow by 12 per cent.
The specific programs to see the greatest increase in applicants are as follows: Health Promotion +63 per cent, Science four year programs in Sudbury +48 per cent, Arts four year programs in Sudbury +46 per cent, Radiation Therapy +46 per cent, Bharti School of Engineering +43 per cent, Social Work in Barrie +33 per cent and Sports Psychology +28 per cent.
The new School of Architecture seems to be already in very high demand for the upcoming school year as almost four times the amount of people that could be accepted have applied.
Laurentian University’s application numbers have been steadily on the rise as the enrolment has increased from 6,000 applicants in 2002 to the 10,000 that applied this year.
Giroux stated, “I am very proud of the hard work shown by our faculty, staff, students and alumni throughout this recruitment season, under the leadership of our impressive Liaison Team. It’s great to see the momentum of the University, the track record of our faculty and alumni, our new undergraduate degree structure and the excellence of our programs and services increasinglybeing recognized locally and nationally.”
The increase in attention from prospective students also means that it is more difficult to get into Laurentian University as the average entry grade has risen from 79 per cent to 81 per cent. The university wants to take these numbers to the next level in the upcoming years with a projected 83 per cent average entry grade by 2017.
The pool of Laurentian University’s prospective students is also diversifying. Formerly, moststudents who attended Laurentian University came from northeastern Ontario, but now trends are showing an increase in students from the rest of Ontario as well as an increase in international students.
While all of these are positives for the school, they are only applications, and students still have to make up their mind in the upcoming months over which school they will decide to attend in September.
Laurentian University has been pushing to get students to make that choice be Laurentian by concentrating on initiatives like the Next 50 Campaign, upgrading food services, the new residence and the reintroduction of the men and women’s varsity hockey teams.
“Success attracts success,” stated Giroux. “I look forward to meeting many of these applicants in the coming months as they confirm their choice of university and program – we take nothing for granted and won’t rest on our laurels as we want future students to have the best university experience possible from the application process up to convocation and beyond.”
lambda@laurentian.ca