Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

BEN TORRES/Al Dia

 A bumper crop of recent high school graduates and a failing economy are boosting enrollment at community colleges across North Texas.

The Dallas County Community College District added 2,478 students to its roster this fall. The Collin and Tarrant county college districts added 914 and 1,648 respectively.

Local four-year universities also are seeing climbing enrollment numbers, though at a slower rate.

"This was the peak year in number of high school graduates in the U.S.," said Jacqueline King, assistant vice president for the American Council on Education.

The number of new graduates is expected to flatten soon in the rest of the U.S., but the rate in Texas isn't expected to subside for at least another decade, she said.

But fresh high school graduates account for only part of increasing college enrollment, said Sharon Blackman, a vice chancellor for DCCCD. An unstable economy also attracts people training for new careers or improving their job skills.

"People understand the need to have some higher education to be in the workforce," Dr. Blackman said.

Lower costs account for enrollment surges at community colleges during slow economic times, officials said. Annual tuition for a full-time student is about $1,000 at a community college, compared to about $4,500 for a public university.

"You can get the same basic classes here, and they charge a lot less than at the university," said Bella Gomez of Duncanville, a Mountain View College student.

Alicia Rood, 18, of Lewisville saves gas money by taking most of her North Lake College classes online.

Tight finances also forced Dallas resident Adrian Fields to cancel plans to attend a West Texas college and instead enroll at Mountain View College. Mr. Fields had hoped to earn a basketball scholarship, but when that plan fell through, he needed a less expensive option. He's pursuing an associate's degree in kinesiology.

Some community college officials say the financial climate doesn't affect enrollment as much as flexible and relevant class offerings.

Courses in booming fields, such as health care, draw students, said Dr. Cary Israel, president of the Collin college district.

"We've grown in good and bad economic times, and not just because Collin County is growing," he said. "The right programs, retention efforts, college readiness – you add those together, and you'll see enrollment increases."

Local four-year universities also are seeing gains this fall. The University of North Texas in Denton added the most, with 527 more students.

UNT's Dallas campus, which opened in 2000, came closer this semester to becoming a free-standing campus with 959 full-time students, 41 short of the state requirement to grant its own degrees. The school's total head count of 2,212 students includes part-time students.

Private colleges are also receiving more applications, although officials at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Fort Worth's Texas Christian University said they limit enrollment.

"Frankly, we're a little too large, so we're trying to downsize just a bit," said Ray Brown, TCU's dean of admissions.

Most colleges and universities also report increases in Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander students, part of a state effort to make college enrollment reflect the population of Texas.