Cal State Long Beach was named one of the top 10 colleges in receiving first-time freshmen applications, according to the 2009 annual publication of U.S. News and World Report.
As the only regional university on the list, CSULB received 45,771 applications, ranking No. 5 out of 1,339 schools that reported data. First on the list was UCLA (55,708); St John’s University was No. 2 (52,980); UC Berkeley was No. 3 (46,650); UC San Diego was No. 4 (47,046).
“Ranking fifth in the nation in freshmen applications clearly demonstrates that parents and students place great value in a CSULB education,” President F. King Alexander said in a prepared statement.
According to Rick Gloady, director of media relations for the public affairs office, students are choosing CSULB over other universities for a variety of reasons.
“All of these factors — academics, safety, location, lifestyle and more — contribute to Cal State Long Beach’s large pool of first-time freshmen applications,” Gloady said. “Another obvious reason for the campus large applicant pool — it has to do with the university’s location in a large, heavily populated metropolitan area.”
Additionally, he said the university has been recognized in the past for improving graduation rates, being a military-friendly school and receiving “academic-specific recognition for our colleges of business administration and engineering.”
“[The College of Business Administration] professors help you a lot,” junior accounting major Archie Cordova said. “They have good backgrounds and education, they are not mediocre, they are very qualified professors.”
Cordova applied to 14 schools, but decided on CSULB because of its “whole environment.”
However, the bigger applicant pool also means more students are turned away due to limited space.
In 2009, 14,545 freshmen applicants were actually admitted to CSULB with 3,551 enrolling for the fall semester. There was another applicant increase in 2010 when 47,673 freshmen applied, 16,428 were admitted and 3,988 students enrolled.
As a result, there were more impacted majors, including higher standards of academics for certain programs.
Vice Provost for CSULB Dr. David Dowell said, “[There are] elevated standards for non-local freshmen, non-local transfers and all applicants to impacted programs.”
Alexander said in a press release, “This is another positive outcome of having so many faculty and staff dedicated to student success.”
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