“In particular, I think the focus of attention for the next ten years will be to recruit what you might call ‘faculty stars’: nationally prominent faculty members. . . who will continue to enhance the overall reputation of the school,” said Doti.

This reflects a growth plan that will focus more on quality than quantity. The current student population is 5600, including law students and graduate students, and Kertes believes that number will only increase to 6000 in the next five years, and hopefully not much more than that in ten years. By doing this, the university can continue to be more selective in its admissions process and the average GPA and SAT scores of incoming freshmen can continue to rise. Kertes noted that an increase in student quality will cause an increase in faculty quality, program quality, and facility quality.

“In order to stay cutting edge, we will continue to be selective,” stated Kertes.

In correlation with student quality and selectivity, the university will also increase its focus on each incoming freshman class. It is the goal of the university that every incoming class is comprised more and more of freshmen instead of such a heavy reliance upon transfer students. In addition, Chapman will focus on keeping incoming freshman from transferring out.

In 1992, two out of every three freshman would leave Chapman before graduating. Now only one in three freshman leave, but the goal is to make that number even smaller.