For the third year in a row, students have filled every living space available on the campus of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in anticipation of the start of the fall semester on Wednesday.

Dr. Chris Kinsey, director of residence life, said around 1,350 students are occupying rooms in ABAC Place, ABAC Lakeside, and overflowing into Comer Hall.  That brings a smile to the face of ABAC President David Bridges.

“We always like to have the residence halls filled, and that has not been a problem the last few years,” Bridges, who begins his 11^th fall semester as the ABAC president, said.  “Building on a theme we used last week at the fall conference, these students know life is better at ABAC.”

Troy Spicer, Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, said applications for spots in the nursing program are the highest in three years.

“We are on track to enroll the largest nursing class ever at ABAC,” Spicer, a 1982 graduate of the ABAC nursing program, said.  “The previous record was in the fall of 2011.”

The entire ABAC campus helped to celebrate 50 years of nursing students at ABAC last year, and Spicer said the increased exposure could be a factor in the record enrollment.

“We welcome the increase, and we will work extra hard to meet the challenge of providing clinical lab space and skills lab space with our main partner, Tift Regional Health System, for all these students,” Spicer said.

Area merchants are always glad to see the ABAC students return because in the most recent study available, the college had an economic impact of $329,844,725 on Tift and surrounding counties.

“Students are staying at ABAC longer because of the bachelor’s degrees,” Bridges said.  “They are eating in the restaurants, buying from the stores, and contributing to the local economy.  Some of them will eventually find jobs here, settle down in the community, and contribute even more to the economy long term.”

Bridges expects the fall term enrollment to be about the same as the 2015 enrollment when 3,393 students from 153 Georgia counties, 25 states, and 22 countries attended the college.

“The past five years have been extraordinarily rough as far as college enrollment,” Bridges said.  “This has been a nationwide trend. It has been brutal in Georgia, particularly South Georgia.  At ABAC, we have held our own and have actually grown a bit.  And we haven’t had to compromise on ABAC’s principles and demand for excellence.  ABAC is the only college in South Georgia that has not seen a precipitous decline in the last few years.”

Around 1,500 of the ABAC students will major in bachelor’s degree programs this fall, up from the 41 students who enrolled in bachelor’s degrees in 2008.  The four-year degree in Diversified Agriculture is the most popular of the bachelor’s degrees but students are also seeking baccalaureate degrees in biology, natural resource management with tracks in forestry and wildlife, environmental horticulture, nursing, business and economic development, or one of the tracks in the interdisciplinary rural studies degree: ag communications, politics and modern cultures, social and community development, and writing and communication.

Two hundred of those students spent this summer in internship positions, according to Dr. Darby Sewell, assistant vice president for engaged learning.

“That number has doubled since 2014 when we had 99 students in internships,” Sewell said.  “These internships offer students real life experiences so they will be prepared for the job market.  In fact, some of the students will be hired by that particular company after they graduate because they made such a good impression in their internship.”