Summer Enrollment Grows at Mississippi College

Studying in her car with the air conditioning on full blast, Dunal McCurdy found a way to beat the June heat on the Mississippi College campus.

A law firm employee, the 48-year-old Hazlehurst resident is among 1,937 students enrolled at MC's summer classes. “It's good to go during the summer,” said McCurdy, a business administration major. “I'm so close to graduating.”

A senior on track to receive her bachelor's degree in December, McCurdy is among the students boosting Mississippi College's summer enrollment. There were 1,892 students in summer classes a year ago.

Registrar Cathy Van Devender says a 70-student hike in undergraduate enrollment fueled this year's increase. Numbers rose slightly for the doctoral program in educational leadership. Reports show the 260 students’ attending the MC School of Law in Jackson is unchanged from last summer. Graduate students taking classes dropped slightly compared to the summer of 2009.

Overall, MC summer enrollment in 2010 “is the largest number in several years,” Van Devender said.

Adding to those numbers is Brooke Bridevaux, an MC senior who's taking physics courses this summer to ensure she will graduate in May 2011. “It's hard to graduate in four years,” says the 21-year-old biology/pre-dental major from McComb.

MC's final summer enrollment count should inch up by a few more students at registration July 6 for the remaining five-week summer semester.

Mississippi College staffers are also busy hosting a blitz of orientation sessions on the Clinton campus as they gear up for the fall semester. Evening classes for the fall begin August 23. Day classes start August 25.