(The Center Square) — The University of Wisconsin says its new freshman class is a record-breaker.
The university released its freshman enrollment numbers earlier this week that showed a 7% increase over last year’s freshman class. Less than half of this year’s freshman are from the state of Wisconsin.
“We are thrilled that these exceptional students have chosen UW–Madison as their higher-education home,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said in a statement. “In return, we commit to providing them with what has been this university’s hallmark for 175 years – a world-class education that prepares students to take on society’s toughest challenges and become transformative leaders in their professions and their communities.”
UW-Madison’s newest class has 8,516 students, with 45% of those from Wisconsin.
“UW–Madison is once again exceeding its commitment to enroll a minimum of 3,600 new Wisconsin resident freshmen. This year’s figure of 3,825 is especially significant given the stagnant number of Wisconsin high school graduates and the decreasing number of Wisconsin high school graduates pursuing post-secondary education.”
Some of the UW’s new freshmen are also from Minnesota, as per the state’s agreement to charge Minnesota students Minnesota tuition prices to go to UW schools.
“A separate Board of Regents enrollment policy measures UW–Madison’s commitment to the state by requiring the university to enroll annually at least 5,200 new undergraduate students (new freshmen and new transfers) who are Wisconsin residents or Minnesota reciprocity students based on a three-year rolling average. The university exceeds this with its most recent average of 5,616,” the university added.
UW-Madison continues to be popular, particularly with students from other states. The university said a record 65,933 freshmen applied to UW-Madison. That’s up nearly 4% from last year’s freshman class.
UW-Madison also tracked the demographic information in this year’s freshmen class.
“The percentage of Black students enrolled dropped to 2.1% from 3% last year; Hispanic/Latino(a) enrollment dropped to 8.5% from 10%; Asian enrollment dropped to 11.8% from 12%, though the number of Asian freshmen rose; “two or more races” enrollment dropped to 4.7% from 5.2%; white enrollment increased to 60.4% from 58%. The percentage of freshmen who declined to provide their race rose to 4.2% from 3.2%,” the university added.
This is the first freshman class at the University of Wisconsin to be admitted after the United States Supreme Court struck down affirmative action.
There are more freshman students who may be getting financial aid this year at UW-Madison. The school said 21% of the freshman class is eligible for a federal Pell Grant. The UW said 750 students are recipients of Bucky’s Tuition Promise this fall. About 1,150 are recipients of Bucky’s Pell Pathway, and 31 are recipients of the Wisconsin Tribal Educational Promise Program.
