Mississippi College has an enrollment issue. See why that's a 'good problem to have'

In a era where small colleges and universities across the country are struggling with shrinking enrollment, Mississippi College has more students than it knows what to do with.

The private Christian school in Clinton off Interstate-55 has had surging enrollment the last two years, to a point that even after updating an older dorm that had been offline, it still has more than 70 students that don't have a place to put their head at night heading into the fall.

MC has had 3,300 freshman applications the last two years for the school of around 4,000 students, a number that includes undergraduate, graduate, law school in downtown Jackson and dual-enrollment students. Applications are up 9% from last year and up 60% from this point two years ago.

That is thanks to the establishment of the Speed Scholarship, available to in-state high school students to receive full undergraduate tuition for the incoming fall semester of 2023.

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The Speed Scholarship, made possible by Leland Speed of Jackson, was initiated to make Christian education attainable at a college dedicated to helping students academically, spiritually and emotionally, officials said.

Although Speed attended Harvard and the University of Georgia, he funded the scholarship to give Mississippi students a fair chance at Christian higher education.

At the time of his death in 2021, Speed was serving as chair of the Mississippi College Foundation Board and as a successful real estate developer.

While many schools were sweating the May 1 student-deposit deadline, this year's MC freshman class size of between 600 and 650 will be down about 25% from last year. However, that is by design, according to Michael Wright, Dean of Enrollment Management and Admissions at Mississippi College.

"We are thriving with enrollment in the undergraduate world, most of that due to the Speed Scholarship," Wright said. "We will be at 100% capacity. Every bed will be filled. That's a big deal."

The Fall of 2023 was the inaugural Speed Scholarship class, which generated a record 810 freshman entering the school with another 250 transfers. The only question for officials at MC was whether the school would be able to retain those students year over year. MC has an undergraduate enrollment of around 2,600.

"With that being the case, and even knowing we were bringing an older dorm back online, we realized we wouldn't have the space to bring in another freshman class as big as last year's," Wright said. "Applications have been up but we have had to be more judicious about who we are selecting to come to Mississippi College. That is a good problem to have."

Mississippi College requires that all freshman live on campus, which is where the challenge lies.

"We have definitely dialed up the standards for being admitted and coming in as a freshman at MC, knowing that we have limited space, know that we are going to be at 100% capacity," Wright said. "So we will be at around 650, down from around 850. That had to happen."

Wright said this freshman class will have, on average, a 1-point higher ACT score than last year and a .11 higher high school grade-point average.

All of that good news leaves 74 students that have been accepted for the fall on the housing wait list.

"We have folks that are raising their hands and saying we want to be there and we want a bed," Wright said. "We will work through that wait list throughout the summer. We know there will be people that change their mind or their boyfriend will break up with them and they will leave. So, generally speaking, we will see between 70 and 100 drops during the summer. If the data hold true from the last few years, we think we will be able to place all of the people on the current wait list."

The other challenge of surging enrollment the last two years has been keep the educational quality and providing the classes that students want.

"It's a fun problem to have to have to maneuver the way we have," Wright said. "We have added sections of courses to keep our identity what it is, which is small class sizes and a manageable student-teacher ratio. So, we don't want to lose our identity, which is to be a Christian university, where we send students out into the real world and transform more people to Christ through their chosen field."

Even with the growth, Wright says there is no plan to build new dorms and grow beyond what the scope of the school currently is.

The total enrollment of 4,000 is where the administration wants to keep it for the foreseeable future. Wright says that is where the school's leaders believe it can best serve its mission.

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi College enrollment is surging thanks to Speed Scholarship