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Enrollment up at schools in Tallahassee and S. Georgia; how parents are handling move in for new students

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  • FSU, FAMU, Valdosta State, and Southern Regional Techincal College are seeing a jump in enrollment numbers.
  • FSU has started their move-in a week before classes are set to begin.
  • See what's driving enrollment at FAMU in the video above

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Classes at Florida State University and Florida A&M university start in less than 10 days! Despite the weekend heat, parents and students are handling the return to Tallahassee.

"Moving in was honestly really easy, a lot less stressful than I thought."

I'm Terry Gilliam, Your neighborhood reporter in Southwest Tallahassee. Enrollment is up at colleges and universities in our area. I'm tracking the numbers as thousands of students get ready to have a big impact on the big bend.

The most commonly used phrase to describe FSU move-in Sunday was organized.

"It's more organized than I expected, I thought it would be more chaotic."

It was so common that even parents could agree.

"I'll tell you; they were super organized at Florida State. I mean, the process this morning was seamless, they have it down, really easy, I mean it was easy."

Organization is critical for the university, especially since college enrollment is up for institutions in the big bend area.

FSU is expected to enroll over 6,000 first-year students for the fall 2023 semester.

That's over 2,000 more first-year students than the previous year.

Kristi Smith is one of many parents working through the heat.

"Well mom gets to go in the air and then everybody brings the stuff so that wasn't too bad for me…. But yes, I think, generally everybody's experiencing the slight uptick."

The same increase of enrollment can be said for other Universities in the area.

Valdosta state university and southern regional technical college are seeing a jump in numbers.

According to VSU, grad school enrollment is up 22%, and their undergraduate class for the fall is up 5% compared to last year.

Southern regional is seeing a 10.9% growth in student enrollment, the second highest growth in the technical system of Georgia this year.

As for Florida A&M University, they've seen an uptick in numbers, but specifically in male students.

It's estimated that Famu plans to have a couple hundred more male students in the fall than previously.

Famu's fall move in guide says students will be returning to on-campus housing Monday through Saturday of this week.

In southwest Tallahassee, Terry Gilliam, ABC27.