In the fall semester of 2018, students and staff were informed that Winthrop University had lost about 50 students from the returning class of 2021. Due to this loss, the school lost millions of dollars in paid tuition, which resulted in certain expense cuts and money saving ideas. However, with Winthrop’s recent and newest record, that may change.
According to an email sent from Winthrop’s presiding president, Dr. Dan Mahony, the biggest admission recruiting season was back in 2006 at 5,328 applicants. As of Jan. 1, 2019, that 2006 record has been broken. Winthrop received 5,341 applicants for the fall semester of 2019. Although that’s only 13 more students than applied in 2006, it speaks volumes about what kinds of things are being done at Winthrop University. If accepted and enrolled, these students could help lower tuition and possibly even re-establish some of the expense cuts that have been implemented this year.
According to Eduardo Prieto, Winthrop’s Vice President for Access and Enrollment Management, in-state application rates have gone up from the areas of Columbia, Charleston, Greenville/Spartanburg areas and also the Rock Hill/York County area. He also said these numbers went up slightly out–of–state. While breaking this record is significant, it is important to note that Winthrop uses a rolling admissions process. Students can continue to apply. There is the opportunity to grow the record-breaking number of 5,341 applicants even further.
Besides the wide variety of programs, opportunities and organizations that are offered at Winthrop, admissions counselors have also had a hand in the applicant increase.
Ty Robbins, admissions counselor, said that traveling to schools and connecting with possible students helped increase the number of applicants.
“This is my first year, so I feel like I have little experience, but the traveling I did as a counselor, talking to the students about Winthrop and trying to get them interested in Winthrop with these numbers, makes me feel like I got through to the prospective students,” Robbins said.
Kim Foster, admissions counselor, said that she is looking forward to the enrollment process.
“I’m really excited that we got our numbers up. Now we work on getting those applicants admitted. I’m really excited to look into the future,” Foster said.
Craig Gero, admissions counselor, said that the next step is getting those applicants enrolled at Winthrop.
“To use an analogy, they’re in the pasture; now we’ve got to get them in the barn. We fight for one student at a time. I try to look at each one that I can and try to get them to come, because the big thing is how many students we enroll,” Gero said.
Ali Solari, Winthrop ambassador, said that the growing number of applicants points to a bright future for Winthrop.
“It shows that Winthrop won’t always be a small school. I also think that it’s really good but because increased numbers will help account for transfer, and dropout students to keep a baseline number of students going,” Solari said.
