Yvonne Lee is prepared to trade in year-round sunshine for the unpredictable weather in Syracuse.

Lee, a Los Angeles resident, is set to begin Syracuse University in the spring as a freshman international relations major, she said in an email. Though Lee admits moving approximately two thousand miles from her friends and family will be difficult, she said the programs and opportunities offered by SU ultimately outweighed her apprehensions.

‘I’ve lived in Southern California my entire life, so I knew it would be quite a transition from being able to wear flip-flops year-round to trekking in rain boots,’ Lee said. ‘But I think that’s what college is supposed to be about — learning to adapt and, hopefully, thrive somewhere unfamiliar.’

Lee is one of the growing number of students outside the northeast that have opted to attend SU. The university has ramped up recruiting efforts in places such as California, Florida and Puerto Rico, resulting in larger enrollment from students located in farther away places, said Don Saleh, vice president for enrollment management.

Saleh said the freshman Class of 2015 will have the greatest geographic diversity in SU history.

‘For the first time in our history, the percentage of students from the Northeast is below 70 percent,’ he said.

Enrollment by freshmen from the Northeast fell to 68.5 percent from 71.6 percent in the previous year, Saleh said. Students from the West represent 7.1 percent of the freshman class, up from 6.4 percent for the Class of 2014. Students from the South occupy 9.2 percent of space in the freshman class, an increase over last year’s 8.6 percent, Saleh said.

Saleh said he credits the increased enrollment from students outside the Northeast to more rigorous recruitment practices across the nation as well as an ‘energized’ alumni base.

SU has developed a stronger presence along the West Coast and has maintained contact with prospective students through receptions, mailings and electronic means, Saleh said. More specifically, an admissions task member working out of an LA office has bolstered interest in SU in the region substantially, he said. In addition to LA, Saleh said SU has also established major presences in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

Lee said SU’s presence on the West Coast was evident during the admissions process when she tried to sign up for an admissions interview.

‘I was placed on the waiting list at first because there were so many interviewees, so I think that whatever Syracuse is doing to build a presence on the West Coast, it’s working,’ she said.

The decision to recruit from outside the Northeast with greater urgency was driven partially by the desire to diversify the learning experience at SU, Saleh said.

‘Students who come to class with different life experiences, they enhance the type of learning inside the class,’ he said.

SU also regards itself as a ‘national institution’ and is working to develop a student body that reflects that, Saleh said. High school graduation rates have also dipped across the nation. Once those numbers rise in the coming years, more graduates will hail from the Southeast and Southwest due to greater population movement to places such as Texas, California and Florida, he said. Meanwhile, Saleh said he anticipates the population of future 18-year-olds in the northeast and central states to remain stagnant.

Saleh said students from farther away are not given preferential treatment over students from the Northeast during the admissions process to create a more geographically diverse student body.

Instead, greater interest from students outside the Northeast has resulted in a larger applicant pool, he said. The average GPA of admitted students has also not been compromised and has risen slightly, while average SAT scores have neither increased nor decreased, Saleh said.

Though Saleh said he has not yet examined admissions data in the context of SU’s policy on inclusivity, he would not be surprised if greater racial and ethnic diversity has resulted from increased recruitment outside the Northeast.

‘One would guess that, because there are a large minority population in those states, we would see more racial, ethnic diversity coming because of that,’ he said.

Once accepted to SU, Sakthi Sankarraman, a sophomore chemical engineering major from northern California, said receptions for admitted students held by SU officials on the West Coast helped ease his decision to attend SU.

‘It was a pretty welcoming feeling knowing it’s not just you,’ he said. ‘There (was) a bunch of other California kids coming there.’

Though Sankarraman said there are obvious cultural differences between New York and California — such as the word ‘hella‘ being mostly exclusive to northern California — his perspective of the United States has broadened.

‘I’m getting a new perspective of the entire country in general,’ he said.

If enrollment goals are realized, even more students from farther away, like Sankarraman, will attend SU.

Based on enrollment numbers from the last couple of years, the university is on track to reach its goal of enrolling one-third of the fall of 2013 freshman class from regions beyond the Northeast, Saleh said.

Said Saleh: ‘We’re going to always have the Northeast as our foundation, but each year, in the coming years, I think we’re going to see more students from outside the Northeast applying for admission to Syracuse University.’

dbtruong@syr.edu

Published on August 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Debbie: dbtruong@syr.edu | @debbietruong