CSUN Deadline for Freshmen on the Horizon

NORTHRIDGE — Cal State Northridge may be a “fallback” school for some high school seniors, but if they don’t plan ahead they’ll be out of luck come September.

That’s because CSUN has advanced the drop-dead deadline for accepting applications from incoming freshmen--and it’s coming this Thanksgiving weekend.

Applications for fall 1998 must be postmarked by Sunday--one reason Van Nuys High School college counselor Carolyn Barnhart described the atmosphere in her office Tuesday as “insanity, mostly.”

The CSU application deadline coincides with that of UC applicants, meaning Barnhart has been conducting floor-seating only workshops this week for both.

Yet, despite drum-beating from her and CSUN outreach workers over the looming deadline, Barnhart said one boy wandered into her office Tuesday to ask if it was too late to apply.

Barnhart said beginning Monday her reply to such queries will be, “How would you like to go to Cal State Bakersfield? Because they are still accepting applications.”

While the Nov. 30 date is not a new deadline day for CSUN, this is the first year the Northridge campus will enforce it, officials said.

The crackdown on the admission deadline for freshmen is part of the university’s response to what educators call “Tidal Wave II,” the estimated deluge of more than 400,000 students--the sons and daughters of baby boomers--who will be knocking on college doors over the next decade.

Because the rush began earlier than anticipated, CSUN is overenrolled by 1,200 full-time equivalent students this year, students for whom no funding was allocated, said Louanne Kennedy, CSUN provost and vice president of academic affairs.

At least two other overcrowded CSU campuses, San Diego State University and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, are also hewing to the Nov. 30 deadline for new freshmen.

Kennedy said the tightening of admission dates and policies are a harbinger of things to come as the CSU system strains to cope with the flood of students.

By cutting off freshman applications now, CSUN is adhering to a state master plan that already exists, but had not been strictly followed, Kennedy said.

Under the plan, the first responsibility of the CSU universities is to accommodate transfer students from community colleges. The second priority is to freshmen and the third is to graduate students.

To preserve room for transfer students, CSUN has decided to limit the freshman class to 2,200, a figure that at the school’s 30% to 33% admission rate requires about 7,800 applications, said Ludim Seja de Manzano, director of student outreach and recruitment services at CSUN.

But the rules are also tightening for transfer students who must have completed 56 college units and classes in four basic areas before becoming eligible for CSUN.

About 10% to 15% of freshman applications typically arrive after November, mostly in March, after seniors who had earlier applied to a University of California campus find out they have not been accepted.

These students are among those to whom Seja de Manzano and her staff members have directed their efforts with seminars, instant enrollment meetings and meeting with high school college counselors.

“We’ve even hand-carried applications in for students,” Seja de Manzano said.

Lorraine Newlon, CSUN admissions director, added that the message to UC hopefuls is, “Don’t wait until you . . . see if you get into a UC to apply.”

Because most applications arrive by mail, Newlon said there was no rush of high school seniors on campus Tuesday, though the lines were long because students have concerns over registration for next semester.

The admission office will be open today until 5 p.m., but closed the remainder of the week for the Thanksgiving holiday.

For those who don’t get to the post office, or simply prefer dealing with cyberspace, Newlon recommends applying on-line before midnight Sunday.

The Web site address for the program called CSU Mentor is www.csumentor.edu

“It’s a wonderful alternative,” Newlon said.

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