North Central College sets enrollment record for third straight year

North Central College has achieved record student enrollment numbers for a third consecutive year.

The school welcomed 3,218 students to its campus this academic year, the highest ever in its 165-year history and surpassing last year’s record of 3,179 students, officials said.

Enrollment numbers show the college has 527 graduate students and a record 2,691 undergraduate students, eclipsing last year’s record of 2,632 undergraduates. Incoming students at the undergraduate level represent 38 U.S. states and 24 countries, while graduate students come from 27 U.S. states.

The news comes as North Central College receives recognition from U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 20 private colleges in the Regional Universities Midwest category, sharing spot no. 18 with Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.

NCC also ranked No. 23 in the overall regional rankings, alongside Cedarville, Hamline and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

North Central President Abiódún Gòkè-Paríolá said he was thrilled by the enrollment numbers, especially as colleges across the country are grappling with a declining high school graduate population.

According to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the Midwest specifically is expected to see a 16% decline in high school graduates by 2041. Illinois is projected to see the worst decline in the region at 32%.

On top of that, many colleges in the U.S. find themselves grappling with a landscape in which people are questioning the value of a four-year degree, Gòkè-Paríolá said.

For more prestigious universities like Harvard or University of Chicago, proving the worth of their degrees is not as difficult. But for smaller, less wealthy schools like North Central College, proving that worth can be more challenging, he said.

“There was a time when we believed it was important for everybody to go to college,” he said. “That’s changed, so that’s a very difficult environment.”

At the same time, Gòkè-Paríolá said he was not surprised by the college’s new record, adding that North Central has been very intentional in its strategy to recruit new students.

One aspect of that strategy is the slew of academic programs it has added in the past decade, particularly in the health sciences. Those include programs in nursing, occupational therapy and physician assistant studies.

“We started making a pivot when I arrived as provost in 2015,” Gòkè-Paríolá said. “That’s when we began to change (and started) looking at all the changes that were going to come. We knew that we had to begin to pivot in the types of programs we offered to be sure that we would always be relevant.”

He added that students wanted the programs at the time as well, which only further solidified the investment North Central would make over the next decade.

Other initiatives that have helped the university achieve its enrollment goals include its Cardinal Pledge and transfer fast-track programs.

The former ensures that the university covers the full tuition and fees for first-year, Pell-eligible students from Illinois. Starting this year, the Cardinal Pledge also applies to eligible transfer students.

“It was just one more way or one more carrot to keep students (not only) within the state, but here closer to their home base in Illinois,” said Michelle Kronfeld, North Central’s vice president of enrollment strategy.

The latter allows for students who want to transfer to NCC to apply to the school with their unofficial transcript, allowing them to receive admission decisions sooner. Both the transfer fast-track and the Cardinal Pledge programs were started a year ago.

Finally, the university’s location in Naperville and the success of their football team are also key factors in bolstering enrollment, Gòkè-Paríolá said.

When looking at the enrollment numbers for this year, Kronfeld said that one thing that stood out to her was the number of the students living off campus this year. In 2023, North Central College had about 150 commuter students. This year, that number is 235.

“It really just reinforces the Naperville connection and the strength of North Central that we have so many commuter students that have many options within the footprint of where they may commute, but they’re choosing North Central,” Kronfeld said.

While the growth is exciting for the college, Gòkè-Paríolá emphasized that North Central has no intention of drastically scaling up its enrollment numbers.

“We don’t want to become a huge university,” he said. “I think we could take a few hundred more between undergraduate students and graduate students because their needs are very different. I certainly will find that good, sweet spot for us if we grow a little more with that very nice mix.”

cstein@chicagotribune.com