ALAMOSA, Colo. — While universities across the country face declining enrollment following the federal government’s delayed rollout of the form that helps students apply for financial aid, Adams State University in Alamosa is seeing an increase in fall enrollment.
The university is reporting a nearly 5% increase in undergraduate enrollment from 2023.
"A few months ago, our enrollments were very uncertain… Adam State and really, all of higher education, faced some pretty significant challenges, as we're one — still recovering from the COVID decline, but more urgently — the federal government's rollout of the New Application for Federal Student Aid, or the FAFSA, as it's commonly known, was delayed many months, and then when it was rolled out, it had all sorts of errors and challenges embedded in it, and for institutions like Adam State that serve a lot of low-income and first generation students and students of color, a delayed and difficult rollout of the FAFSA really harmed their college going process,” said David Tandberg, the president of Adams State University.
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Tandberg said Adams State administrators worked hard to assist students during the FAFSA delay.
“We did a lot of outreach to the San Luis Valley high schools, but then also held FAFSA completion webinars that were available to anyone, whether they're going to Adams State or not,” Tandberg said. “We went to all the high schools. We worked a lot of overtime hours to ensure that no student was denied access to higher ed for no fault of their own.”
Tandberg said the university has also implemented several other policies that have led to an increase in enrollment.
“We also implemented what we called the 'Adams Promise,' and so any student coming from a family or household making less than $75,000 can go to Adams State, tuition and fees free," which only applies to Colorado residents who live in any county "below, essentially, the Denver metro area."
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Additionally, any student graduating from a San Luis Valley high school or getting a GED is automatically admitted to Adams State, Tandberg said.
"And that overcomes a lot of barriers, where a lot of students, if they're first generation, if they're low-income, they may not think they're college material, and yet they get a letter saying 'you are' and you’re automatically admitted here, we want you. And ‘oh, by the way, you're getting the Adams Promise. It's tuition and fees free.’”
Tandberg said Adams State University serves more students from low-income families than any other university in Colorado.
Adams State is also a Hispanic Serving Institution, or HSI. The designation requires at least 25% of a university’s student population to identify as Hispanic. Adams State University’s Hispanic student population is 47%.
