ORANGE : Chapman University Enrollment Rises 11%

Flush with the highest enrollment in Chapman University’s 131-year history, officials there say that they can thank the financial troubles facing California’s public universities.

Enrollment at Chapman increased more than 11% in the 1992-93 academic year, bringing the total number of undergraduate and graduate students to 2,650.

“Ironically, the biggest thing that enabled us to get more students are the problems the public sector schools are suffering with overcrowding,” said Mike Drummy, Chapman’s director of admissions. “The more crowded the public sector schools get, the more people look at private schools and the more attractive we seem.”

Moreover, the average score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test for entering undergraduates increased 24 points over the 1991-92 academic year, from 899 to 923. Students can score a total of 1,600 points on the exam.

Drummy attributed the rise in SAT scores to increased targeting by Chapman of high-achieving high school students.

More than half of all Chapman students are from Southern California, and more than 70% receive some form of financial help to pay the annual tuition of $14,936, Drummy said.

The number of nonwhite students attending Chapman also increased in the 1992-93 academic year, 468 to 567, in part because of increased recruiting efforts by the admissions office.

“We feel we have a public service mandate to introduce private education to a broad cross section of people,” Drummy said.