The NIU Graduate School has experienced an increase in applications and enrollment over the past five years.

Unlike the undergraduate programs, the graduate school does not have a target number of students allowed to enroll in the program, said Rathindra Bose, graduate school dean.

However, there are caps on the number of students allowed in each individual program within the graduate school.

Unlike undergraduate classes, which sometimes have 100 students or more enrolled for one section, graduate school classes are smaller. Typically, graduate classes have between 15 and 24 students, Bose said.

“Graduate school is much more interactive,” Bose said. “Classes are not big to begin with.”

The number of students enrolling in the graduate school programs has increased steadily since 1999. Enrollment figures in graduate school classes, not including the law school, have increased by 977 students.

“We are working to increase the amount of students in the graduate school,” Bose said. “We are looking into hiring new faculty for more students.”

The productivity of the faculty, articles that have been published by the faculty in trade magazines and outside funding to the graduate school are among the reasons for increases in enrollment, Bose said.

A freeze on undergraduate applications was instituted earlier this year at NIU, but graduate school applications have not been frozen.

“Because of the increase in applications, we are a little behind in processing the applications,” Bose said.

Increasing the admission standards to get into the graduate school is not something that is being explored currently, Bose said, but may be in the future.

“If we keep getting more applications, we will,” Bose said.