SUNY Oswego admission rates increase after pandemic

In the year 2020, COVID caused many university enrollment rates to decline and SUNY Oswego was one of them. The Admission Office at SUNY Oswego is actively working hard to increase their enrollment rates. 

According to SUNY’S Enrollment Data, SUNY Oswego was 20 percent behind in applications in October 2021. However, those reports aren’t stopping SUNY Oswego’s Admission Office. Interim Executive Director of Enrollment Management Joel Wincowski says student deposits have recently increased by over 50 percent last year. 

“We’re seeing very large numbers right now,” Wincowski said. “Again, it’s the team approach. You look at programs like today with 400 people, and a program tomorrow with over 1,000 with students and parents coming. It’s a huge advantage because now we’re doing things on campus and last year we weren’t able to.”

Admitted Student Day is where future SUNY Oswego students can spend the day learning more about the school and what it has to offer. This year’s Admitted Student Day allowed incoming students to meet with faculty and staff, tour the campus, and attend different club and academic presentations.

SUNY Oswego’s admission team is currently doing a variety of things in an attempt to enhance enrollment. They’ve recently held social events at Top Golf and Dave and Busters in both New York City and in Syracuse that were very successful. 

“It just gives students a chance to meet other students and bond,” Wincowksi said. 

Open House Intern Yadi Aranda Burgos says events like Admitted Student Days are extremely important for future college students. 

“They’re especially important for the first-year incoming students because half their high school career was behind the computer,” Burgos said. “They couldn’t do graduation. They couldn’t do prom and being in person, meeting all the faculty, meeting all the staff, doing their deposit is definitely like a sense of normality.”

SUNY Oswego’s admission team includes everyone in enrollment including students, faculty and staff and alumni. 

Alumni send out personalized letters to incoming students within a specific school. Al Roker has sent letters to communication students while the CEO of a company has sent theirs out to prospective business students. 

“We have a teacher in education who sent one out,” Wincowski said. “They’re very targeted to the population that’s interested in those areas and trying to welcome them to the community and encourage them to enroll.”

Wincowski says because of the school’s successful team approach, SUNY Oswego is currently the number one school in the SUNY System with a 15 percent lead over last year.

“We enhance, we build and we grow,” Wincowski said. “The school is going to be very successful down the road and in the future with enrollment and being probably one of the strongest SUNYs in the system.”

Incoming students can visit oswego.edu/admissions to see upcoming events that are taking place on and off the Oswego campus.