NDSU has set a spring semester enrollment record for the 10th straight time, reaching 12,562 students in the university’s undergraduate, professional and graduate programs. Part of the increase comes from an all-time record for graduate student enrollment. The official enrollment figures, which are compiled following the fourth week of classes, were announced Feb. 10.
The spring record figure represents a 7.4 percent increase, compared to 11,699 students one year ago.
The number of new freshmen for the semester stands at 102, compared with 54 one year ago, and there are 270 new transfer students compared to 237 in spring 2008.
“I am pleasantly surprised, primarily because of the increase in new freshmen and transfer students. Even though we anticipated a large increase last fall semester, I did not anticipate an increase of this magnitude for spring semester,” said Prakash Mathew, vice president for student affairs, noting that NDSU’s growth is in all areas.
NDSU also set a new high for graduate students, with 1,882 attending classes, compared to last spring’s 1,719, which was the previous spring record. This is an all-time record enrollment for a spring or fall graduate class.
“I am not surprised that our graduate programs continue to grow. As we expand our program offerings we appeal to a broader cross-section of students. What makes this record graduate enrollment impressive is that we set it in a spring semester, which does not happen frequently,” said David Wittrock, dean of the graduate school.
In addition, NDSU’s international student population is now at 982 undergraduate and graduate students, another spring record high. That number compares to 828 during the previous spring semester.
“Even though we have a record high enrollment, we were able to accommodate all the students needing housing in our on-campus housing facilities. We are also making plans for next fall semester to house all the incoming freshman students in our on-campus housing,” Mathew said. “We believe if we did not guarantee housing for first-year students, some of our later applicants would not have chosen NDSU. We are pleased we were able to retain a vast majority of these students.”