The Freshmen of 2008

When I saw that I had a message from Mabel Freeman, I almost deleted it. Could have been anything--like a guy shoveling snow in the buff from a Floridian, or a Nigerian princess offering me a loan or ink cartridges. However, I'm glad I looked--at her message, not the guy. It was about the OSU class that entered in September 2007 (not sure why that is called the class of 2008 instead of 2007). It really is impressive. I thought they were fudging a bit on the stats for "students of color" since that includes Asians, and I think there needs to be a better term for students whose ancestors didn't come from Europe like SWANE, although eventually, I suppose if colonial emigres to Britain study in the U.S., even that one won't work. I thought this was impressive: "75% enrolled having earned college credit from AP performance, post-secondary enrollment, or international baccalaureate participation." It looks like the College of Engineering snagged most of this talented group, with business coming in second. I don't know what "exploration" means, but probably "still thinking," or "present." When I was at Ohio State, there was a lot of concern and effort about retention of minority students, because they were heavily recruited, but so many failed or transferred. Therefore, I was thrilled to see this: "African American and Hispanic retention reached a new high of 91%." Also foreign student enrollment is way up again, after falling off after 9/11 when security measures got stricter.

Good job, Ohio State University!