The admission of more than 4,000 first-year students at Winona State University for the fall 2008 semester may cause alarm to many students or faculty concerned with spacing, but according to the admissions office, there’s no need to worry.
Carl Stange, director of admissions at Winona State, said that although the admissions office has admitted 4,416 first-year students for the fall 2008 semester, the actual show rate in the past has been between 38 to 40 percent.
In other words, of the students that are admitted to Winona State, about 38 percent to 40 percent actually chose to attend the university.
The admission numbers appear large because students will often wait until the last minute to tell a university that they decided on another school, Stange said.
Once of the main concerns with more students is the loss of one of the university’s often advertised appeals—its small class sizes.
According to one Winona State promotional brochure, class sizes currently consist of between 26 to 35 students and Stange said the class size is not subject to change dramatically during the next school year.
Stange said the likelihood of Winona State seeing a 100 percent turnout rate of the admitted students is highly unlikely.
“It’s never happen, I pray that it never does,” he said.
In fact, the target number of incoming students has been set at 1,680 students. Looking at the past years’ incoming fall class reflects a similar trend. This past fall 1,734 first-year students came to Winona State. The year before, fall 2006, saw 1,735 incoming first-year students, and the fall before that with 1,721 students.
“We are very stable compared to other state universities,” Stange said. “We want to be consistent.”
The admissions office works with the university assessment office to make educated evaluations about trends, including those in regard to incoming students.
In addition, the student technology and housing departments are watching admissions numbers on a regular basis to make sure there will be enough laptops and housing available for the incoming class, Stange said.
He added that if there is more housing space available to offer students, the application-acceptance process is kept open longer.
“We want to use the university to its full capacity,” Stange said.
He added that the three departments are constantly in communication with each other, informing each other on a weekly basis.
It is not that the admissions requirements have changed, Stange said, but rather that the admissions office must now review candidates “based on need for the university community”.
In other words, the admissions office looks at the availability of space in the university program the applicant is interested in.
Starting after March 21, Winona State’s admissions office has been in a selective admissions process in which it reviews applicants to the university by narrowing down the search by program space, Stange said.
Other factors that are taken into account are how a student can contribute to an academic community and the academic merit in high school.

Contact Rachel at RDSmith5697@winona.edu