Freshman ACT scores highest ever

The freshman class of 2015 continues to make history, as it brings in the best ACT scores the University of Mississippi has ever seen, along with increased enrollment numbers.

Freshman ACT scores rose from 23.2 in 2010 to 23.5 this year.

As a collective class, the graduating class of 2011 high school seniors stand a better chance of graduating from college, based solely on ACT reports. At the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, enrollment has increased from 900 students to 920 students. 

This year’s honors college freshman class had a collective ACT composite score of 30.8, compared to last year’s honors college freshmen’s collective score of 30.2.

Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, dean of the honors college, said two factors contributed to the spike in academic enrollment and performance –– one internal and one external.

“We’ve been pulling in great students all along, and great students bring in other great students,” he said. 

Sullivan-Gonzalez called this method “the magnet effect.”

He also said another factor that helped the honors college gain such success was the faculty and staff, along with the combined effort of the alumni and administration.

For the external part of the honors college success, Sullivan-Gonzalez said marketing conditions and the change of the economy helped.

Though ACT scores boost the honors freshman class, Sullivan-Gonzalez said it was the students’ work ethic that really made the honors college stand out.

“We’re proud of the bar set by the ACT, but what we’re really proud of is that these students are high performers,” he said. “Everybody has to work, everybody has to perform.”

As far as retention goes, a goal set by the honors college to have 1,000 students by 2013, Sullivan-Gonzalez said. With the way things are looking, the honors college may exceed its goal, as it is already 10 percent above the national average in retention.

The students at the honors college love the challenge and the community the college offers. Freshmen international studies majors Grace Hanes and Emilie Street think of the honors college as a home away from home.

“I love the honors college,” Street said. “Grace and I come in after classes and stay here until –– it doesn’t matter what time.”

Hanes said the honors college takes a page from former president John F. Kennedy.

“We have this motto at the honors college,” she said. “It’s not what the honors college can do for you, but what you can do for the honors college.”

Sullivan-Gonzalez said the honors college plans to expand the building to allow more space for the students.