Purdue University North Central undergraduate students continue to enroll as full-time students as the fall 2015 semester opened with PNC students taking an average of 12.16 credit hours, with 75 percent of all PNC undergraduate students taking 12 or more credit hours. Students taking 12 or more credit hours are considered to be full-time students.
The PNC 2015 – 2016 academic year opened Monday, Aug. 24 with a 6,158 students enrolled. This is a slight drop from the 6,177 students enrolled in the fall semester of 2014.
Included in the 2015 fall enrollment are 3,059 core undergraduate students, 142 graduate students and 2,937 Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment students. The graduate student population includes 39 students in the Master’s of Business Administration program and 103 non-degree-seeking graduate students.
PNC has retained 76.71 percent of its students who were enrolled in spring semester classes.
This fall, PNC has 531 first-time, full-time students enrolled in its freshman class. These freshmen include 196 students, or 37 percent of the group, who earned Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment credits in high school. They entered PNC with an average of 11 credit hours and savings of nearly $3,000 in tuition by taking college courses in high school.
“The PNC students, faculty and staff all look forward to a productive academic year ahead. Students who attend PNC know they will receive a quality Purdue education and earn a Purdue degree that will play a key role in ensuring their future success,” said PNC Chancellor Dr. James B. Dworkin. “It is important to note that close to 34 percent of our students are enrolled in 15 or more credit hours per semester. If these students continue to earn 15 or more credit hours each semester, they will be on track to graduate in eight semesters, or four years. Students earning 12 credit hours each semester will graduate in 10 semesters, or five years.”
The average PNC undergraduate degree-seeking student is 24 years old. There are 2,404 males and 3,754 females enrolled. PNC has 2,233 students from Porter County and 1,616 students from LaPorte County.
This semester, there are a record 2,937 students taking 16,704 credit hours through the Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment program. This program allows high school students to earn both high school and Purdue University credits while they take classes in their high school during the regular school day. PNC offers Dual Credit/Concurrent Enrollment classes in 44 Northwest Indiana high schools.
“We work closely with our partner high schools to ensure the academic rigor of the dual credit courses and monitor the students’ learning outcomes,” said Dworkin. “We see that many of these highly motivated students commit themselves to earning a bachelor’s degree in three years so that they have a competitive edge as they enter the job market earlier than they may have otherwise, while saving a considerable amount of money on tuition, books and expenses.”