Lone Star College opened its doors to a record 89,413 credit students for fall 2017, representing a 4.4 percent increase in credit student enrollment over fall 2016.
“Education is even more critical today as our area continues to recover from Hurricane Harvey,” said Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., LSC chancellor. “We are honored so many students selected Lone Star College for their higher education needs.”
LSC has grown its student population from 49,267 to 89,413 over the past 10 years, representing a 81 percent increase. Enrollment figures are recorded each fall on “Official Day,” 10 days after the start of fall semester classes. This year’s official day numbers were impacted by Hurricane Harvey due to LSC-Kingwood delaying the start of fall semester classes at that campus.
LSC-Montgomery and LSC-University Park recorded the largest percentage of increase – 10 percent – welcoming 15,914 and 13,273 students respectively. LSC-CyFair continues to be the largest LSC with 22,125 students enrolled for fall 2017 classes.
LSC-Kingwood, which had six of its nine buildings destroyed by Hurricane Harvey, registered a 5 percent increase year to year, helping 12,950 students start close and go far.
“I want to personally thank everyone at Lone Star College-Kingwood for the tremendous work they did helping their students adjust to attending classes at alternative locations, including sister Lone Star colleges, taking late start classes or moving to online classes,” said Head. “Our focus this semester was to help make sure our students were able to continue their education and stay enrolled.”
Other official day enrollment figures at LSC were; LSC-North Harris – 15,845; and LSC-Tomball – 9,306 students.
The LSC student population mirrors the community it serves. This fall, Hispanics represented the largest demographic group with 38.7 percent of credit students or 34,609 students. In addition, 27,983 students (31.3 percent) are white; 14,014 (15.7 percent) are black; and 6,729 (7.5 percent) are Asian. The remaining students are identified as American Indian, multi-ethic or did not specify their ethnicity.
In fall 2017, nearly 8,000 area high school seniors selected LSC as their first choice the fall after they graduated from high school. LSC also has many non-typical college students – 29.7 percent are age 25 and older and 68.5 percent attend part-time. LSC also welcomed 3,229 international students in fall 2017 from more than 100 countries.
LSC now has a total student population of nearly 99,000 students, when including non-credit workforce and community education students, making it the second largest community college in the nation.
Lone Star College offers high-quality, low-cost academic transfer and career training education to 99,000 students each semester. LSC is training tomorrow’s workforce today and redefining the community college experience to support student success. Stephen C. Head, Ph.D., serves as chancellor of LSC, the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area with an annual economic impact of $3.1 billion. LSC consists of six colleges, eight centers, two university centers, Lone Star Corporate College and LSC-Online. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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