Part-Time vs Full-Time Enrollment

What this data can & can't answer

Time-to-degree (Q10) uses Months from Admit to Grad ÷ 12; course access/times (Q7) is now answered via the campus foot-traffic data below. Still out of reach: program start-date structure (8), curriculum-logic interpretation (12), CPL records (13), and summer/winter sessions (15 — the enrollment panel holds only Fall & Spring).

Enrollment volume — context

• Across all terms enrollment splits almost evenly: 50% part-time / 50% full-time.
• The trend shows part-time and full-time moving roughly in parallel each term, with the usual Fall > Spring seasonality.

Q1 · How many students start part-time?

• Among first-time freshmen (n=15,907), 18% enter part-time.
• The entry-term trend shows the PT-start share is fairly steady year to year.
• Spring entrants start part-time far more often (20%) than Fall entrants (17%) — a Spring intake is structurally more part-time.

Q2 · Do part-time starters stay part-time?

• Of PT freshmen with 2+ terms (n=1,712), 43% remain PT every term; the rest attempt full-time at least once.
• By Fall entry cohort (F15→F24) the 'stays PT' rate is broadly stable.
• Note: cohort outcome shown by entry term; recent cohorts (F23–F24) have had less time to switch, so their rates are partly right-censored.

Q3 · Start full-time, then switch to part-time?

• 46% of full-time starters (n=13,017) drop to part-time in a later term.
• FT→PT slippage is common; by Fall cohort (F15→F24) it's fairly steady, though recent cohorts have had less time to slip (right-censored).

Q4 · Do students switch back and forth?

• 40% never switch · 40% switch once · 20% oscillate (≥2 switches).
• True back-and-forth is a real but minority pattern; by Fall cohort (F15→F24) recent cohorts show fewer switches simply because they've had fewer terms (right-censored).

Q5 · Part-time enrollment by degree

• PT volume is led by AAS (26,833), then AA and non-degree. Full-time leans more toward AA/AAS degree-seekers.
• Non-degree is overwhelmingly part-time (dual-enrollment / permit students) — visible as the orange line.
• Health AAS programs (Nursing, Dental Hygiene, Rad Tech) drive much of the AAS part-time load — relevant for sequenced-curriculum scheduling.

Q6 · How part-time are they? (estimated credit load)

• Median PT load ≈ 6 credits; the 3–6 and 6–9 bands are the core of part-time.
• The PT load (solid = median, dotted = mean) sits well below FT every term. Median ≈ 6 (the typical PT student); mean ≈ 6.6, pulled up by heavier-load part-timers — both shown so you can read either.
• Caveat: estimated by differencing cumulative earned credits (no per-term registration field), so it's approximate and understates dropped/failed attempts.

Q7 · Course access & times — campus foot traffic (FT vs PT)

• This answers the "course access / availability / times" question the enrollment file could not: it shows when students are on campus, by day-of-week and hour, split full-time vs part-time (711,307 records → visit-hours).
• Part-time students carry the heavier evening footprint (≈5–8pm, Mon–Thu) and out-total full-time overall (1.81M vs 1.17M visit-hours) — directly relevant to where added sections, services, and CPL advising should sit.
• The image above is the all-terms global view; the button opens the full interactive dashboard (served alongside this page).

Q9 · Demographics of part- vs full-time

• Global (age): PT skews to the extremes — more under-19 (dual enrollment) and more 30+ (working adults); FT concentrates at 19–22.
• Trend: the share of PT students aged 30+ runs consistently above FT every term.
• Fall/Spring: women are the majority in both groups and a few points higher among PT.

Q10 · Time to degree (months admit→grad ÷ 12)

• Overall: median 3.4 yrs, mean 3.9 yrs from admission to graduation (n=21,637). Median = the typical graduate; mean runs higher because a tail of long completers pulls it up. Both are shown.
• Where PT/FT status is known (10,202 of 21,637 grads, ~47%), mostly-part-time grads take much longer: median 4.4 vs 3.0 yrs (means 4.9 vs 3.4).
• The trend is limited to grad years 2014-15→2024-25, where the PT/FT join has hundreds of grads/year; earlier years had only a handful of matched records and produced misleading spikes, so they're excluded.
• By grad semester, Summer completers finish a touch faster; AAS is the slowest degree, certificates the fastest.

Q11 · Stop-out & re-entry

• Typical gap is short: median 2 semesters (mean 2.8); a single one-semester gap dominates.
• Stop-out propensity is similar for PT and FT entrants over time — supports a fast 'win-back within ~1 year' outreach window.

Q14 · Public benefits & aid by enrollment intensity

• Source: these are term-level Yes/No flags in the enrollment extract — Pell (federal Pell Grant), TAP (NY Tuition Assistance Program), APTS (NY Aid for Part-Time Study), and Public assist. (the file's AFDC flag — a public-assistance indicator). They show aid/benefit receipt, the available proxy for benefit access.
• Need-based aid is tied to full-time: Pell 77% FT vs 45% PT; TAP 49% vs 6%. PT students largely lose TAP.
• APTS is the only PT-specific lever and reaches just ~3% of PT records — an under-used cushion. Verdict: partial — the benefit↔intensity interaction is answerable; future work-requirement impacts are not (no work-hours data in the file).