Another year, another enrollment record for Purdue Polytechnic

The University’s official enrollment numbers for Fall 2019 include great news for our college: we have a record-setting number of Purdue Polytechnic Institute students, with 4,910 undergraduate and graduate students in our West Lafayette (WL) programs and nearly 1,000 students at our locations around the state. This is the third consecutive year in which our college has achieved an all-time-high enrollment, along with six consecutive years of increased enrollment at WL. In the competitive world of higher education and with declining trends at some institutions, each of us should be proud of this impressive accomplishment.

Drilling down into our WL enrollment numbers and other metrics of success for the past six years – the period during which the Polytechnic was transformed – we have several reasons to celebrate:

  • 31% increase in undergraduate students
  • 67% increase in undergraduate female students
  • 33% increase in undergraduate underrepresented minority students
  • 58% increase in graduate students (traditional and online)
  • 80% completion of our transformation objectives, and still making progress

Another milestone to highlight and celebrate: our Fall 2019 new beginners are the most academically accomplished first-year students we have ever welcomed to the Polytechnic. Their entrance exam scores are the highest on record for our college and underscore the increasing competitiveness of our programs.

Fueled by our commitment to active, hands-on learning, the sustained growth of our college helped earn our position in the new Gateway Complex, a collaborative space for the Polytechnic and College of Engineering. For those of you who missed the presentation in August, we plan to break ground in 2020 and then anxiously observe the construction of instructional labs, collaborative spaces, research spaces, and additional offices to accommodate further growth.

My thanks and appreciation go out to the entire Polytechnic team of faculty and staff for your continued hard work and your dedication to improving how we prepare our students for success in the real world. Well done!

About The Author

Gary Bertoline's picture
Gary R. Bertoline is Dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology, and a Professor of Computer & Information Technology. Prior to becoming dean, he served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Technology. From 1995 through 2002, Gary served as Department Head of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue University.