Beginning spring 2010, the required grade point average for transfer students with 60 or more credit hours will increase from 2.5 to 2.8.

“It adjusts every few years but because of the freshman [class] increase and demand,” said Nancy McDuff, associate vice president of admissions, Thursday at the Faculty Admissions Committee meeting.

“The University is at an all-time high of 34,100,” she said. “We are getting huge increases in the number of transfers and this [requirement] addresses the increase. The spring 2010 change gives students early notification.”

The number of transfer students has increased since 2004 by more than 500 students, or 31 percent.

Students who earned an associate’s degree with a 3.0 are given first priority in transfer decisions. The University serves as a major recipient of students from two-year schools in Georgia, McDuff said.

“More students are graduating from high school in Georgia,” she said. “The demand to come to [the University] will continue to rise yearly.”

The University expects to enroll 5,000 freshmen next year; 4,400 for fall, 400 for summer and 200 for spring.

“We have had a 5 percent increase in early action applications and project the transfer size to be 800,” she said.

As of Monday the number of freshman applications received was approximately 12,000, with 11,000 of those as early action applicants.

“We now have four orientation sessions instead of one,” McDuff said. “There are three transfer orientations and one freshman.”

In 2008 alone, 13,000 people were in attendance for all orientation sessions. Of those, roughly 7,000 were students.

In addition to the expected class size, applications and orientation sessions, the committee discussed conduct in reviewing applicants.

The motion was made that the Judicial Affairs Office begins reviewing the student’s application and will apply the code of conduct as if they were a student.

“This will happen if the student has been admitted and before enrollment we discover that a violation has occurred,” said David Graves, senior associate director of admissions.

Graves said out of approximately 25,000 applications submitted over a year, about 800 to 1,000 of them have a conduct issue.

Applications include those submitted by freshmen, transfers or students who once attended the University and are reapplying, said Graves.

“Some students may have [something] on their high school record, an illegal issue,” he said. “Most of them are minor – ‘My phone rang when I was in class and I was reported’ – things of that nature.”

Those with serious infractions will receive letters in their acceptance packages telling them the University knows of the issues.

Those reviewing the file of applicants are instructed to make a suggestion to McDuff about what they think should be done, said Graves. From there McDuff will take the next steps.

“Most of the time, it is people who are on probation or about to get off of probation,” she said. “We try to make it so that students have a chance.”

“Each one is an individual issue and it would be hard to look at [wholly],” said Graves. “We are trying to get an understanding of the circumstances of the situation and how they handled it.”

McDuff said of the students admitted to the University, none have had a major violation.