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Enrollment up at Colorado Mountain College

Colorado Mountain College

The number of students taking courses at Colorado Mountain College is up. The biggest jump in enrollment is in Rifle.

The Rifle campus saw double-digit growth compared to last year’s enrollment. Campus officials point to more courses, a new downtown location and an increased number of high school students taking courses.

Campus-wide, enrollment grew by 3.4 percent. In the Roaring Fork Valley, campuses in Aspen, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs also saw growth. Lin Stickler oversees enrollment for CMC.

"Some colleges are decreasing - they’re struggling. So for us, this shows that we’re heading in the right direction and it’s higher than what we did last year," she says.

She says there’s a growing understanding nationally of the value of career and technical degrees from community colleges. For in-district students, CMC says it offers the lowest tuition in the state. The school is seeing growth in subject areas like psychology, art, math and humanities. The academic programs seeing growth are nursing, outdoor education, hospitality and photography.

The total number of students enrolled college-wide is 8690. Colorado Mountain College operates 11 campuses across Colorado's high country.

Enrollment breakdown at local campuses:

Aspen campus: +0.8 percent

Roaring Fork campuses (Carbondale, Spring Valley, Glenwood Springs): +10.7 percent

Rifle campus: +15 percent