All roads lead to Kent State.

Probably the most vital information I obtained from my conversation with Nancy Dellavecchia, Director of Admissions at Kent State, was about the ever-extending reach of the university through its multitude of programs and strong communication abilities with prospective students.

“Over the years we’ve expanded where we reach out to,” said Ms. Dellavecchia, “and I see that continuing.”

The highest number of out-of-state students may come from Pennsylvania, but by no means does that restrict the increasingly diverse student body at Kent State. According to the 15^th day enrollment statistics provided by the university’s website, Kent State saw more than a 9 percent increase in the number of international students.

The class of 2018 also brought a small increase in AALANA (African American, Latino American and Native American) students.

Kent State admissions have certainly developed a trend of bringing in students with higher grade-point-averages and more diverse backgrounds, which has inversely led to one of the biggest freshman bodies in Kent State’s history.

“[The] headcount at the Kent Campus for fall 2014 is 28,457 students, exceeding last year’s record of 28,019. This marks the eighth consecutive year of enrollment growth on the Kent Campus,” reads the 15^th day statistics from the fall semester of 2014.

Towards the end of my second semester, several freshmen with a greater number of credit hours than the average received emails explaining how the incoming freshman class was rather large, and how we would be given the option to move off campus a year early if we wanted to. I asked Ms. Dellavecchia if she believed we would have to start being more selective to prevent overfilling the campus.

“We’re careful about that,” said Ms. Dellavecchia. “Things go up and things go down, so you have to be careful with how quickly you… change that.”

According to her, fewer and fewer high school students are graduating in the area. One could conclude this would eventually result in an end to this enrollment growth streak, and prevent Kent State from taking in too many students.

With all that said, I believe my beat for the semester, being Recruitment & Enrollment, is going to end up revolving around new student demographics. I want to figure out which colleges on campus have grown the most in terms of enrollment over the past few semesters and who the newest additions are to each.

I would also like to delve into the collective mindset of freshman students at Kent State and learn about their perceptions of the university and what got them to enroll. On the flip side, I will also talk with older students to see what kept them around. Kent State’s retention rate hit a new high in the autumn, and it’s worth looking into.

I have a ton of number crunching to do.