Colorado State Announces Record Enrollment Fueled by Incoming Freshman Class that Boasts High Index Scores, Increased Diversity

Colorado State University, fueled by one of the largest freshman classes in school history, today announced record enrollment of 23,934 students for the fall semester.

A 12 percent jump in entering freshman, one of the largest percentage increases in university history, helped push the total enrollment up by nearly 4 percent this fall.

The freshman class–which numbers 3,720 students–showed an increase in both Colorado residents and non-resident students choosing Colorado State. The in-state freshmen increased by more than 10 percent, up to 2,806 students this year. The non-residents in this freshman class were up nearly 15 percent over last year, increasing to 914 students for the fall semester.

This freshman class is also one of the best prepared in school history, based on the index score, or a combined measure of standardized test scores and high school academic performance. Overall, the class posted an average index of 110-which, for example, could translate into a high school grade point average of 3.7 and a score of 24 on the ACT (American College Testing exam.) Resident freshman posted an average index of 109, while non-resident freshman had an average index of 111 in this incoming class.

In addition to a large freshman class, Colorado State continued to draw a large number of transfer students. This semester there were 1,788 new transfer students, of which 1,305 transferred to Colorado State from other Colorado institutions. A total of 455 non-resident students transferred to Colorado State.

"It is particularly gratifying to see that so many of the bright young people in Colorado and from around the nation are recognizing our university as providing an excellent environment to learn and grow," said Colorado State President Albert C. Yates. "We as a university community are dedicated to student learning, and this enrollment increase shows that many top-quality students from around the state, nation and world are choosing to join our community."

This freshman class also continues to improve the diversity on campus, with a 3.4 percent increase in diverse freshmen over last year. In this freshman class, there are 476 new diverse students, which brings the total percentage of diverse students to 13 percent for this entering class. This infusion helped the university maintain an overall diversity rate of more than 11 percent.

The university also is seeing some financial impact from its recent move to a new, more refined core curriculum that reduces the number of credit hours required to graduate from 128 to 120 hours. This impacts the university because state funding is based on a credit hours rather than on headcount. While the reform in the core curriculum does help students graduate sooner, it carries with it a negative financial impact on the institution, Yates said.

"Putting the new core curriculum in place was the right thing to do for our students and our institution; however, there are some financial implications based on the state funding formula," said Yates.

The enrollment announcement follows a series of positive news at the university. Recently, U.S. News & World Report included Colorado State among the top universities in the country–ranking the university in its second tier. Also, Kiplinger’s magazine has ranked Colorado State as one of the top 50 public universities and the Templeton Foundation has named the university a top character-building institution.