Corporate internship climate impacts summer enrollment

In a summer session offered 100% online -- a very different picture from the usual 35% or so -- Iowa State enrolled 9,845 students, a decrease of about 9% from a summer ago. That figure includes 6,841 undergraduates, 2,853 graduate students and 151 fourth-year doctor of veterinary medicine students.

Pandemic impacts

Two-thirds of the 771-student decline from 2019 summer undergraduate enrollment occurred in the College of Engineering. Associate dean for academic affairs Sriram Sundararajan said the pandemic's impact on corporate internship programs is the biggest factor behind that change. Historically, about 70% of Engineering undergraduates complete at least one corporate internship or coop, often during the summer, and register for an internship course that records feedback and assessment of their experience. Sundararajan said 537 Engineering students registered for internship courses this summer -- less than half of last summer's 1,108.

"A recession-type environment and COVID-19 combined in a perfect storm," he said, "and companies made changes to their internship offerings."

A reluctance to risk infection from the coronavirus in locations away from home may have prompted some students to postpone their internships, too, he said.

The Ivy College of Business achieved enrollment growth this summer of 4% compared to last summer. Associate dean for undergraduate programs Valentina Salotti said college leaders, anticipating fewer internship and job opportunities for students due to the pandemic, decided to offer additional upper-level courses for juniors and seniors. In addition, she said the accounting and management departments contacted non-degree seeking students and students who left the college before completing their accounting degree to encourage them to enroll in summer courses.

Business associate dean for professional masters programs Jackie Ulmer said several of the college's graduate programs -- such as the Professional MBA program in Des Moines -- allow students to start in the summer. She also pointed to program-specific recruiting initiatives launched recently that are starting to show results and the pandemic's canceling effect on summer travel and vacations.

"Students may have decided to get some additional coursework completed instead," she said. "In any case, we are thrilled to have all of these students as part of our Ivy and ISU family."

Summer enrollment by college: all students

What our students are studying

In a summer that's far from normal, one thing is: Many of the historically popular summer course offerings made the 2020 list, too, including Calculus I and II, Principles of Microeconomics and the perennial chart-topper, Business Communication.

Summer 2020: 15 highest enrolled undergraduate courses

Iowa State's summer census day is the 10th day (June 26) of the second session. The count reflects all registration through that day, including classes that concluded prior to it and even a few that hadn't started yet.