The Voice - Student Newspaper

Education overload: Taking advantage of innovative learning atmosphere, student enrollment increases

By Shaye Ortega
Reporter, The VOICE

With a new school year beginning there are some obvious speculations that this year has many more students then last year.

The Maricopa Community College district states there has been at least an 18 percent increase compared to last year. GCC's enrollment was reported by the Arizona Republic to be 16.7 percent higher than 2008.

Glendale Community College sophomore Phillip Ortega states, "The school seems like its grown a lot more compared to last year."

The things like parking trouble and trying to find a spot to sit in the Student Union are giving hints of being crowded.

This is not unusual for the enrollment rate to increase because the economy is still at a low point. Especially with the tuition going up for colleges, it is less expensive to start at a community college first. It is around this time when many people want to re-career, and find a better way of living.

Not only is there an increase at community college level but also at the university level.

Northern Arizona University has 3,500 new freshmen, which is the largest class NAU has ever had. It is also believed that NAU will break their highest enrollment record, which was 15,413 in 1995.

NAU college freshmen Katie Isaac states, "It hasn't really affected me that much. My classes are still small and I'm still getting a great education. It goes to show what a great university NAU is!"

The community college enrollment is increasing around the nation. But with the first week coming to a close, these numbers are bound to change.

Please send comments to sortega@gccvoice.com