HARTSVILLE — Coker College welcomed the largest freshmen class in it's 100-year-history during Saturday's orientation session.
Students and parents filled the Elizabeth Boatwright Coker auditorium to overflowing as part of campus activities that surrounded the return of students for the fall semester.
Outside the auditorium, sport utility vehicles and a U-Haul trailer filled the campus' parking lot as parents and students unloaded and hauled gear across campus to the dorms.
"We are pleased to see so many freshmen who have chosen Coker," college president Dr. Robert Wyatt said of the 270-member freshman class.
Just getting started at Coker himself, Wyatt said the largest freshman class would likely push the college's total enrollment to a record level as well.
And overall, Wyatt said, the student numbers are an endorsement of Coker's mission to provide an individualized student experience for those attending.
"We have a lot of first generation college students who will be attending with us this year," Wyatt said.
Anticipating growth, Coker added dorm space onto the campus -- dorm space that is now full to capacity, the president said.
"We are grateful," Wyatt said.
The orientation session came on the heels of last month's announcement that Coker had been selected one of the best colleges in the Southeast according to The Princeton Review -- the sixth consecutive year the college has earned that honor.
The 141 colleges The Princeton Review chose for its 2010 "Best in the Southeast" designations are in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Princeton Review also chose 218 colleges in the Northeast, 123 in the West, and 158 in the Midwest as best in their regions. These best regional colleges represent only about 25 percent of the nation's four-year colleges.
Coker is an independent, comprehensive liberal arts college founded in 1908.
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