New Applicants Signal CSUN Quake Rebound

New student applications for the fall semester at Cal State Northridge are up 13% from a year ago, the biggest increase of any school in the 20-campus Cal State system and a sign of the university’s steady emergence from the shadow of the Northridge earthquake.

As of May 31, CSUN’s admissions department had received 16,908 applications for the fall, compared to 14,955 during the same period last year. If that trend holds through the application deadline in August, requests for admission could reach a five-year high.

School officials credit aggressive recruiting at high schools and community colleges with countering the negative publicity generated by the January 1994 earthquake, which caused an estimated $350 million in damage to the campus. An “instant” admissions program that allowed high school seniors and transfer students to apply in person and immediately determine their eligibility was among the efforts that appear to have paid off, said Lorraine Newlon, director of admissions and records.

The increase in applications noted so far this year was fueled largely by freshmen applicants, who usually apply earlier than transfer and graduate students. By the end of May, 8,083 first-time freshmen had submitted applications, compared to 6,769 last year, an increase of 19%.

“We are very happy about the increase we are seeing among freshmen applicants because it means more students who are looking at the university are at least applying to Northridge,” Newlon said.

Applications from prospective graduate students are running 17% ahead of last year, totaling 2,678 compared to 2,293. Transfer student applications are up 4%, Newlon said.

The growth in applications at CSUN has far outstripped the pace at other Cal State campuses. Systemwide, new student applications are up about half a percent. The campus with the second-largest increase in applications was Cal State Fullerton, where the applicant pool expanded by 7% compared to CSUN’s 13%.

Even before the earthquake flattened a parking structure, closed the main library for months, and forced students and professors to hold classes in portable trailers and tents, CSUN already was seeing applications to the campus waning.

Between 1991 and 1992, for example, the university had 1,389 fewer applicants--a situation officials attributed to the state’s financial woes, rapidly rising tuition, and a decline in the college-age population. But the earthquake exacerbated the trend. During the months after the quake, the campus received 756 fewer applications for the fall semester than the year before. Last year’s fall applicant pool was the smallest in seven years.

“The earthquake was the kiss of death,” said Jan Livingston, a college counselor at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. “The campus already had an old image that it was a difficult place to get the classes you needed and to graduate from in four years. With all the destruction and the kids having to use the library at Valley College and going to class in bungalows, the image became one of a place in disarray.”

But Livingston said CSUN’s determined outreach efforts helped convince students that the university is once again a safe and convenient option. Throughout this school year, a CSUN student who graduated from Birmingham visited the high school every week to talk to seniors about college in general and Northridge in particular. In December, CSUN staff held an on-site admissions program at Birmingham at which they accepted students on the spot.

“It was very tangible, very user-friendly,” Livingston said. “The students felt so good because they could say right away, ‘I’m going to college, I know I’m going.’ ”

Newlon said that while CSUN used to be able to count on a steady flow of applicants, the earthquake showed the campus that it could no longer take student interest for granted. Now, the admissions office telephones potential applicants who have missing transcripts or other information to encourage them to complete their files, she said.

Newlon cautioned that it is still too early to know whether a greater number of applications will result in a boost in actual enrollment. For one thing, the presence of portable classrooms and reconstruction that is not expected to be completed for another two to three years might still discourage prospective students.

Application rates, however, normally presage enrollment trends. A little less than half of the students who apply to Northridge end up being admitted and actually enroll, Newlon said. So based on that formula, with an additional 2,100 applications expected for the fall, enrollment is expected to increase by about 1,000 students, or about 4%, she said.

During the fall semester following the earthquake, the student body was smaller than it had been in 24 years. Last fall, ending four consecutive years of decline, enrollment edged up 2.9% to 25,015.

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CSUN Applications

New student applications to Cal State Northridge for fall enrollment have increased 13% from a year ago.

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Total Fall Semester Applications Fall Freshman Applications* 1992 18,617 7,735 1993 18,068 6,713 1994 17,333 7,902 1995 17,140 6,769 1996 19,268 (projected) 8,083

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* As of May 31, for year given.

Source: CSUN