Georgia Southern welcomes more than 7,700 new students this fall

As their mascot soared overhead, hundreds of new Georgia Southern students crowded into Paulson Stadium to celebrate the end of the first week of classes and create an iconic start-of-the-semester photo.

The gathering was one of many events designed to help welcome a bright, diverse, worldly class of 7,633 students who are new to Georgia Southern this semester.

While final enrollment numbers will not be official until October, an early analysis of the of the fall 2023 class shows that the group includes:

• 4,715 students who are first-time freshmen, with an average high school GPA of 3.45
• 1,063 students who transferred into Georgia Southern this year
• 781 high school students dually enrolled in Georgia Southern classes
• 1,074 graduate-level students

Dual enrollment and graduate enrollment could both be enrollment records this year.

“Almost 32,000 students applied for a spot in Georgia Southern’s class this year, signaling a real demand for the University’s combination of value, excellence, tradition and impact,” said Alejandra C. Sosa Pieroni, Georgia Southern’s executive vice president for the Division of Enrollment, Marketing and Student Success.

“More and more students are recognizing Georgia Southern is a place where they can thrive– where they can get a world-class education, make life-long friendships and have an enriching experience that prepares them for a rewarding and fulfilling career,” she said.

Analyses of the incoming students show:

• 4,715 first-time freshmen
  • Average High School GPA: 3.45
  • From Georgia: 89%
  • Number of states represented: 30
  • Number of countries represented: 21
  • First-generation college students: 36%
  • Honors College students: 313
• 1,074 graduate students
  • Doctorate: 10.2%
  • Masters: 82%
  • From Georgia: 71.7%
• 1063 transfer students
  • Average Transfer Credits: 52.08
  • From Georgia: 679 78%
  • Number of states represented: 22
  • Number of countries represented: 18
• 731 dual enrolled
  • Average High School GPA: 3.69

����Vlog’s commitment to community engagement and social responsibility continued with the annual , which collected an impressive number of books for local students. The initiative, a collaborative effort between the (OLCE) and , allowed incoming students to contribute more than 760 books for the second consecutive year, underscoring their dedication to making a positive impact on their new community at the start of their Georgia Southern experience.

The SOAR Service Project, an integral part of the University’s orientation program, allowed incoming students and their families to participate in a community service project aimed at fostering connections and a sense of civic responsibility. The project was met with enthusiasm, resulting in a substantial collection of books to be distributed to students in both Bulloch and Chatham counties.

“We always enjoy this opportunity to promote this service project each year to our new Eagles as a way to get them connected to their new home,” said Mike Smith, associate director of New Student & Family Programs.

In collaboration with the nonprofit organization Altrusa Club of Statesboro, the books were labeled and categorized by reading levels, and will be distributed through the Backpack Buddies Program. 

“It is always amazing to see incoming students invest in their new community, and the response to this project is only the beginning of the positive contribution Georgia Southern students will make while they earn their degrees,” added Jodi Kennedy, OLCE director.

Planning and attending student events on a college campus may sound like it’s all fun and games. But new data from ����Vlog shows there are real benefits for the students and for the university when students engage in on-campus activities.

A recent analysis by Georgia Southern’s Institutional Research office of first-year students who attended at least one event during the 2021-22 school year showed that students who attended at least one event returned this year at a rate of 79.4%. That figure is more than seven percentage points higher than the University’s overall freshman retention rate of 72%. 

“National data has consistently shown that the more engaged a student is with the university, the greater their chance of succeeding in college. It’s very satisfying to now have data to show the value of student programming and events at Georgia Southern,” said Shay Little, Ph.D., the University’s vice president for student affairs.

Student affairs has been collecting student participation data since the university launched “the Eagle Experience” in fall 2020. The following year, the program, a collaborative cross-university effort to ensure new students’ successful transition to the Georgia Southern college experience, won a 2021-22 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Excellence Bronze Award.

Now, data show that students are re-engaging after two COVID-influenced years that impacted many of  Georgia Southern’s operations and activities.

Total attendees measured at Georgia Southern events on all three campuses rose from 55,124 in fall of 2021 to 79,408 in fall of 2022. That’s a 44% increase in students who checked in during at least one of more than 1,000 events.

Fall 2022, the numbers show:

• 1,162 total events
• 79,408 total attendees
• 370 Armstrong Campus events that attracted 13,116 attendees
• 662 Statesboro Campus Tagged Events that attracted 62,335 attendees
• 82 different departments or registered student organizations hosted events

“It’s clear that we are reaching our Eagle Experience goals of engaging and retaining our students,” Little said. “We intend to foster a transformative student experience where students have fun, find a place to belong, and have opportunities to learn while enhancing their academic experience.  These results are very encouraging.”