The second 8-week session begins Oct. 24 and students who commence their semester then, coupled with today’s enrollment (Sept. 7) of 10,087, could push AC’s fall enrollment figure as high as 10,350.

 

Bob Austin, vice president of student affairs, said such a tally is within reach and would represent a substantial 5-percent enrollment increase over the fall semester of a year ago.

 

“A lot of folks have worked really hard to recruit and enroll students this fall, and we’re very pleased to be over 10,000 students,” Austin said. “Ten thousand students is an important benchmark for us in the fall.

 

“However, if we can enroll 300 or more new students for our second 8-week session of classes, a format that our students have really embraced, it would reflect an increase of 5 percent or better for the semester. That’s our goal,” he said, “and it’s a goal we anticipate reaching.”

 

This semester, about half of AC’s course offerings are available in the 8-week format. Students who were not ready or able to attend AC in August need not wait until the next semester in January to take classes; they can get started as soon as Oct. 24.

 

The 8-week format was incorporated at AC to help students finish faster – and better. Students with time constraints who can manage only two classes at a time can now do that twice in a single semester, which lifts them to full-time status, optimizes their financial aid and propels them more swiftly to completion.

 

Moreover, definitive research shows that students tend to retain information better and be more engaged in shorter and fewer simultaneous classes, so the 8-week format is additionally beneficial for its impact on student success.

 

AC anticipates having approximately 80 percent of its classes available in the 8-week format by next spring.

 

“Responding innovatively to the needs of our student body takes precedence at Amarillo College,” AC President Russell Lowery-Hart said. “This enrollment increase shows the impact of our faculty and staff – not just on the College, but on our entire community.”

 

For more information about 8-week classes that begin Oct. 24 at Amarillo College, please call (806) 371-5000. To enroll, visit https://www.actx.edu/enroll.