Full Bore Ahead: Gateway Students Flock To Summer School

Summertime often means downtime for college students as they head to summer road trips and take up summer jobs.

But for 750 Gateway students, they’ll be heading to their third semester of classes this summer. 

When we asked Gateway Technical College officials how their enrollment numbers were looking, Zina Haywood, Gateway executive vice president and provost, said the actual number of people in school has remained stable for the past four years. But the number of classes those students are taking has gone into hyper drive as the number of full-time students has increased 73 percent over the past 12 years. An FTE student is defined as the total number of credit hours taken by all Gateway students during an academic year and divided by 30.

The reason for the increased course load?

Many were laid off and have gone back to school full-time to start a new career and many aren’t taking summers off because Gateway offers a full 15-week semester during the summer. The third full term allows students to take more than just one class during the summer months and enrollment has increased from about 425 FTEs in 2008 to about 750 this summer. FTE figures for Summer 2010 through Spring 2011 are 6,300.

For many students, there’s a sense of urgency to get certificates, associates degrees and lay the foundation for bachelor’s degrees.

Here’s why:

Classes are offered year-round and students are taking classes all three semesters with the goal of finishing their degrees more quickly – and entering the workforce

Gateway has offered an increasing number of classes online or “blended,” which is a combination of online and classroom participation. These courses fill out quickly from the moment they are opened for enrollment because of their convenience.

Manufacturing, engineering and information technology programs have shown strong increases, and health career programs continue to show strong enrollment numbers.

“Several transfer agreements we have with four-year colleges help to attract and retain students,” Haywood said.