After a vigorous start, summer registration numbers have steadied but continue to show positive trends despite the COVID-19 outbreak.

About 13,800 students enrolled on the first day of registration, which grew to nearly 18,700 students in the first week.

"Summer registration is strong with contact hours up over 10 percent. I think students in Texas and around the nation are looking at community colleges as an affordable and high-quality option to maintain academic progress toward their goals," says Dr. Charles Cook, ACC provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs.

After the first payment deadline on May 18, summer 2020 headcounts continued to exceed summer 2019 numbers by 1.5 percent. This is even with reduced offerings for courses with significant face-to-face components, such as in DMCAT and Health Sciences.

2,150 students were deregistered on May 19, a smaller drop than trends in the last two years.

As of May 29, more than 24,500 students remain registered for summer 2020 classes, which puts headcount up four percent and credit hours up about 12 percent compared to the same time last year.

However, 2020 and 2019 summer semesters cannot be considered an exact comparison since there are many differences:

• Summer 2020 registration started on May 4, whereas summer 2019 registration began much earlier, on April 1. Note that comparison dates are calculated based upon the number of days prior to the first day of class.
• Summer 2020 is almost all distance education courses, which has an impact on campus location information. Campus enrollment data are not comparable to prior years.
• The payment deadlines and disenrollment dates differ due to the new same-day payment policy started in the spring 2020 semester.

Registration for summer courses continues through July 5 for second session classes.