By Julie Bauer

Northwest Mississippi Community College

Northwest Mississippi Community College was one of only four colleges in the state’s community/junior college system to see an increase in fall 2016 enrollment. According to figures recently released by the college, 7,894 students enrolled for the fall semester at all campus locations, marking a 1.2 percent increase over the previous fall enrollment of 7,799 students.

One reason for the increase is the number of dual enrolled students—high school students taking college-level courses—this fall. Dual enrollment has seen a 27.7 percent increase, for a total of 797 students, over last fall’s number of 624.

“Our steady increase in dual enrolled students gave us the boost we needed to grow the enrollment by 1.2 percent,” said Northwest President, Dr. Gary Lee Spears.

Another area of enrollment which has seen growth over the past few years is the college’s online classes. This year, the eLearning Division saw a 7.6 percent increase with 1,298 students over last year’s total of 1,206. Of those students, 806 are full-time, 492 are part-time and 21 are dual enrolled.

On the Senatobia campus there are 2,482 students in day classes and 48 in the evening school program for a total campus enrollment of 2,530 students. At DeSoto Center in Southaven/Olive Branch, 1,818 are attending day classes and 490 are enrolled in the evening program for a total of 2,308 students. At Lafayette-Yalobusha Technical Center in Oxford, 772 students attend day classes, while 189 are in evening school for a total of 961 students.

In the 11-county district that Northwest serves, DeSoto County provided the most students with 3,701 (46.9 percent). Lafayette County furnished the second-highest number students with 835 (10.6 percent), followed closely by Tate County with 767 students (9.7 percent). Other district counties included Panola, 667 (8.4 percent); Marshall, 483 (6.1 percent); Yalobusha, 228 (2.9 percent); Calhoun, 126 (1.6 percent); Tunica, 86 (1.1 percent); Tallahatchie, 78 (1 percent); Benton, 69 (0.9 percent); and Quitman, 58 (0.7 percent).

Students from other Mississippi counties totaled 500 (6.3 percent), while the number of out-of-state students was 296 (3.7 percent).

Enrollment figures could potentially increase even further following open registration of the college’s second session of eight-week mini-terms, now offered at each campus as well as online. Registration will be held Oct. 12-14, and classes begin Oct. 17. Mini-terms allow students to take high-demand classes such as Algebra, American History, English Composition and Public Speaking in half the time of a traditional class.

For more information on the second mini-term session, contact the Senatobia campus at 662-562-3200, DeSoto Center at 662-342-1570, or Lafayette-Yalobusha Technical Center at 662-236-2023, or visit the Northwest website at www.northwestms.edu.