WINTERVILLE-Though an official total is not yet available, Pitt Community College Registrar Joanne Ceres said this week the college is serving its largest enrollment ever this fall.

During a campus meeting Wednesday, Ceres reported that 7,710 students had enrolled at PCC this semester, up an estimated nine percent from the same point a year ago. She pointed out that a final enrollment total could be even higher since students may still sign up for the college's delayed start courses.

"Not a whole lot of seats are going empty," Ceres said before noting that-as of Aug. 18-only 19 percent of all the seats available on campus during class hours were empty.

According to Ceres, a closer look at the past four years shows PCC's enrollment has risen 26.5 percent. The college enrolled 6,091 students in the Fall 2005 Semester, or 1,619 fewer than are currently enrolled.

Ceres' report showed the number of full-time students jumped considerably from Fall 2008. There are 4,466 full-time students enrolled at PCC this semester compared to 3,606 last year, a 24 percent increase.

An overwhelming number of students applied for financial aid at Pitt this semester. Ceres said the college received an eye-popping 8,187 applications this fall, which nearly equaled the 8,673 the school received for the entire 2008-09 academic year.

Ceres said the number of Pell Grants awarded at PCC this semester totaled 2,404, which was up 587 from 2008. She added that 5,304 (69 percent) of the students currently enrolled are receiving some form of financial aid.

Financial aid factored significantly in the number students who signed up for fall courses but did not ultimately attend. Ceres said the college lost 757 students who registered earlier this summer after purging the class ranks of students who had not paid tuition and fees on time. Of that total, she said 605 were financial aid applicants, the majority of whom applied for aid after the federal government's May 15 deadline.

Ceres stressed the importance of applying for financial aid early, saying students who complete Free Applications for Federal Student Aid on time are awarded earlier and avoid having to pay for tuition and fees out-of-pocket while waiting for their applications to be processed.

Changes to the state's concurrent enrollment program may have kept PCC's enrollment from being even higher, even though the number of high school students overall at the college rose by six percent this fall.

Ceres said the budget approved by the N.C. General Assembly this month limited high school dual enrollment students to math, science and vocational courses. Learn and Earn Online and Huskins Bill students, she said, were unaffected by the General Assembly's changes to concurrent enrollment funding.

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