MUNCIE, Ind. – Fewer first-year students are doing poorly in the classroom, according to a new Ball State University report.

The number of freshmen struggling with college-level work, including those disqualified or on probation, has dropped by 11 percent since 1997, according to an analysis of freshman data.

Randy Hyman, associate vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said the decrease can be attributed, in part, to the continually improving academic preparedness of recent freshman classes and the Freshman Connections program.

The percentage of freshmen admitted with distinction has increased from 5.3 percent in 1998 to 8 percent in 2000. SAT scores of incoming freshmen have also increased over the last three years.

Freshman Connections is an innovative program funded by a $3 million grant from the Lilly Foundation designed to link students in small living and learning groups organized around common courses and out-of-class experiences.

According to the report:

• Academic disqualifications among freshmen dropped from 5.2 percent in fall 1998 to 4.7 in fall 1999 and to 4.4 percent in fall 2000.
• Freshmen on academic probation fell from 22 percent in fall 1998 to 20 percent in fall 1999 to 17.8 percent in fall 2000.
• First-year commuters experience academic difficulty at a higher rate than students who live on campus in their freshman year.
• The percentage of students in academic difficulty has dropped for all racial groups.
• The percentage of regularly admitted students in academic difficulty continued to decline.
• Freshmen who graduated in the top half of their high school class continue to return in the spring at a rate greater than those who finish in the bottom half. The overall fall-to-spring return rate improved 1.5 percent to 90 percent.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Hyman by e-mail at rhyman@bsu.edu or by phone at (765) 285-3734.)

By Marc Ransford, Communication Manager