A Snapshot of Who
Our Students Are

Enrollment Declining while Average Class Load Increases

Enrollment at Cuesta College fell for the second time in 8 years. Enrollment dropped from 10,771 in 2003 to 10,563 in 2004, which represents a decrease of 1.9%. It is not clear at this time what the exact cause of the decrease is, but the enrollment fee increase was a likely factor. Despite the drop in headcount, the average class load per student increased from 11.45 classroom hours per week to 11.71 in 2004. This shows a reversal of a four-year trend of an increasing proportion of students enrolling in 6 or fewer units. In 2004, this percentage decreased to 33.8% from 36.8% in 2003. At the same time, the percentage of students enrolling in 12 or more units increased from 41.7% in 2003 to 45.0% in 2004.

Changes In Student Demographics Continue: More Males, Fewer Whites, and Slightly Younger Students

As in prior years, female students constitute a greater percentage of the overall enrollment (53.8%.) However, the percentage of males continues to increase from 45.5% in 2003 to 46.2% in 2004.
The percentage of white students has decreased from 74.4% in 2000 to 66.3% in 2004. This percentage decrease is redistributed as increases in the proportions of Hispanic students (now 15.0% compared to 13.5% in 2000.) and, more profoundly, in the “Other/Undeclared” category (11.2% in 2004 compared to 4.8% in 2000.) The remainder of the ethnic categories remained essentially unchanged.
The relative percentages within the age categories have remained mostly stable over time. The median age of the overall student body in 2004 is 21, and the mean age is 26.3, down slightly from an average of 26.7 in 2003. The following table shows median and mean age by campus location:

Greater Percentage of First-time Students Under 21 Come from High Schools Outside of San Luis Obispo

For the second year in a row, the percentage of first time students under the age of 21 classified as local (based upon high school location) has increased. Specifically, 44.3% of first time students under 21 in 2004 graduated from high schools outside of San Luis Obispo County as compared to 39.3% in 2003. The actual number of out-of-area students increased by 142 students between 2003 and 2004, whereas the number of local students decreased by only 26. Atascadero High School contributed the greatest number of first time students to Cuesta in 2004 with 177 students.

Educational Objectives of Students Point to more Interest in Transfer and/or AA/AS Degree Attainment

Two obvious trends emerge from the data. First, the percentage of students indicating a goal of transfer increased for the second year in a row from 52.8% in 2003 to 55.2% in 2004. Second, the percentage of students indicating a goal of AA/AS degree attainment also increased from 42.8% in 2003 to 44.9% in 2004. Small decreases in the percentages of students indicating Vocational, Other, and Unknown goals complement the increases in the Transfer and Degree categories.

Enrollment Declines at Each Physical Campus/Site; Distance Education Enrollments Explode

Enrollment dropped in all educational regions except Distance Education, where enrollments grew from 552 in 2003 to 826 in 2004, representing an increase of 49.6%.
The San Luis Obispo campus continues to attract more full-time students (carrying 12 or more units)—51.8% in 2004. However, the percentage of students enrolling in 12 or more units increased at the North County and among Distance Education students, while remaining equal to 2003 among South County students.
The majority of students have completed less than 30 units at the San Luis Obispo, North County, and South County campuses/sites. The slight majority of Distance Education students have completed more than 30 units.

Demographic Differences Between Campuses Become More Pronounced: Fewer than 50% of South County Students Self-identify as White

Whereas the San Luis Obispo campus is divided roughly equally between male and female students (49.3% and 50.7% respectively in 2004), both the North County campus and Distance Education have female enrollments representing roughly two-thirds of the student bodies in each category. The South County centers show 57.5% of the student body as female.

Perhaps of greatest significance, the South County centers have become a majority-minority region wherein 50.8% of the students, in 2004, self-identified as other than “White”. Hispanics and students who mark “Other”, or fail to declare their ethnicity, represent 43.7% of the students in the South County.

The median age of students attending the North County Campus decreased from 23 to 22 in 2004, whereas at the South County centers, the median age increased from 22 to 23.

More Interest In Transfer and/or AA/AS Degree Attainment in all Educational Regions

The San Luis Obispo campus continues to have the greatest percentage of students indicating transfer (61.0% in 2004) and/or degree (47.8% in 2004) as their educational objective. The percentage of students who indicated Transfer and/or Degree as their educational objective also increased in each of the other educational regions. Interestingly, of the four regions, the greatest percentage of students who indicate Vocational goals is Distance Education students (16.1% in 2004.)

Greater Percentages (and Numbers) of Students Reside in the City of San Luis Obispo

Notwithstanding the San Luis Obispo campus, the overwhelming majority of students live in close proximity to the campus/center they are attending. Overall, 3103 students (33.3%) reside in the city of San Luis Obispo in 2004 compared to 2960 (31.4%) in 2003. Further, 41.4% of students enrolled at the San Luis Obispo campus in 2004 reside in the city of San Luis Obispo. Conversely, 80.7% of South County students and 92.3% of North County students reside in close proximity to their respective campuses/centers. The majority of Distance Education students are clustered in the city of San Luis Obispo and in the North County Inland area.

To obtain a hard copy of the Student Characteristics and Enrollment Trends Report, complete with graphs, contact the Matriculation and Research Office at ext. 3951.