High school students push up spring enrollment at Hawkeye Community College

Concurrent enrollments – students earning college credit while in high school – grew by 9.2% to 2,357 compared with spring 2019, according to Dione Somerville, vice president of student affairs.

Overall, Hawkeye’s spring enrollment stands at 5,331, 104 more students than a year earlier.

“It really is the concurrent student population that is driving that increase in headcount,” said Somerville. “We appreciate that opportunity to partner with our school districts.”

Students in 36 school districts take college classes through Hawkeye led by Waterloo Community Schools, the largest district in its service area.

“One of the bigger things we’re seeing with our growth of concurrent is that the number of part-time students is growing,” said Somerville. It’s at 68% of all enrollments, and the vast majority of high school students take college classes part time. “There’s only roughly 30 students who are concurrent who are full-time.”

The growth of part-time students is also reflected in a slight decline in total credit hours this spring. They went from 43,694 last year to 43,516 now.

Hawkeye is also seeing growth in its ethnic diversity. “Students who are from underrepresented populations represent 19% of our total enrollment,” said Somerville, an 18% increase from last spring. Non-white students grew from 846 to 997 enrolled this spring, which she said was “overwhelming” from the ranks of concurrent students.