Guilford’s 2007 first-year class is the largest in the school’s history, with 450 freshmen accounting for 31% of the traditional student population. This year Guilford’s pool of applicants reached a record high of nearly 3,500. Of the less than 60% accepted, 23% chose to enroll.

The goal of Guilford’s strategic plan for fall 2007 was to enroll 1,405 traditional students.

“We’ve surpassed that goal by 43 and enrolled 1,448 students,” said Vice President for Enrollment and Campus Life Randy Doss. “Next year’s goal is to have 1,471 traditional students enrolled on campus, and then have 1,520 enrolled the following year.”

Doss doesn’t attribute the growing number of applicants to print advertisements or to Guilford’s quality of life rating of 75/99 in the Princeton Review.

“When it’s all said and done, it comes down to word of mouth,” said Doss. “It’s not about the Website or our other publications. It’s about people talking to one another about the school.”

While Doss is quite satisfied with this growth, students dining in an overcrowded cafeteria are finding themselves somewhat flustered.

“It’s overwhelming (in the cafeteria). There are a ton of kids in here and I feel like I don’t recognize any of them,” said sophomore Raji Ward. “Most of them are probably freshmen, but that’s not a bad thing.”

“This semester’s traditional student headcount doesn’t differ much from last year’s. It’s just that there are more students living on campus,” said Doss.

“I wonder about the future of the school since the on campus population keeps rising,” said junior Matt Harris. “I have no qualms with this large first year class, but is Guilford going to keep expanding like this until it’s no longer a small liberal arts school?”

In terms of students worrying about the campus being overcrowded, Doss advised that we all make changes in our daily routines. “(Students and faculty) can get a take-out lunch a couple of days a week from the cafeteria instead of sitting down to eat,” he said.

According to Dean of Campus Life Aaron Fetrow, the most significant changes that will take place on campus as enrollment continues to grow pertain to residence life issues.

“The reality is that most judicial problems occur with first year students. 450 of the 1,060 students currently living on campus are first years,” said Fetrow. Due to the increased on campus presence of first year students “we have more hall directors this year, all of whom are college graduates, not currently enrolled students.”

Regardless of Guilford’s population growth, Doss wants to assure students that “our student faculty ratio will remain 16:1 and that the average class size will still be around 20 students.”

In sum, “no individual student’s academic experience will negatively change.