Darlington saw a 3.5 percent increase in enrollment in 2010-11, opening this week with a total of 853 students PK-12 compared to last year’s 824.
“We have found that in these trying economic times the last thing parents want to sacrifice is their child’s education,” said James Milford, assistant headmaster and director of admission. “Families are cutting back in order to enroll and/or keep their children in a learning environment that is safe, rigorous and full of opportunity.”
Enrollment per division is as follows – 159 at the Lower School; 210 at the Middle School; 295 Upper day students; and 188 Upper boarding students.
“At the Lower School, we almost doubled our admission number from last year,” Milford said. “We saw the most success in third grade and kindergarten. By August, we had wait pools at the Lower and Middle divisions as well as for boarding.”
Darlington’s 18 percent increase in resident students this year meant the largest incoming boarding class in over a decade. The admission team focused heavily on high quality students in the state of Georgia and throughout the Southeast who qualified for the school's Servant Leadership Scholarship initiative.
“The renovation of the boys’ residential houses added eight new beds, and we are still seeing a great deal of activity for those few remaining spaces,” Milford said. “We anticipate the boys’ dorms will be completely full by November.”
The school also boasts the largest freshman class it has had in at least the past 10 years, due in part to new relationships with feeder programs in the surrounding area.
“Next year, it looks as though we will only have half the number of day openings in the freshman class as we had this year,” Milford said. “People are realizing the value of coming early to Darlington. We are anticipating that all of these factors combined will increase our early action admission numbers for 2011-12. In fact, we are already seeing applications come in for the early action deadline of Dec. 1. We are planning to expand grade levels to accommodate the anticipated growth, but at the same time we are fully aware of our optimum enrollment. We will not sacrifice the quality of our programs, offerings and opportunities just to get more students.”
Milford added that the Georgia GOAL Scholarship initiative has been helpful in drawing quality students to Darlington who might not otherwise be able to afford it.
“We went from having five GOAL students last year to over 35 this year,” he said. “That’s huge for us. These are great kids who really enhance the Darlington Community. Most families don’t call us or apply because they don’t think Darlington is a reality for them, and I’m here to tell you that anything is possible. I can’t tell you how many families show up on move-in day and thank us for working with them to make this dream come true. All we ask is that you come out to campus and talk to us.”
