If you think you’re seeing more fresh young faces this month on campus than last year at this time, you’d be right.
The number of MU freshmen enrolled this fall is 6,560, which is 392 more than last year’s opening day figure. Overall, 34,255 students are enrolled at MU this semester, up from 33,318 one year ago.
Out-of-state registered students account for 35 percent of the freshman class. This is due in part to MU increasing its recruiting presence in states such as Illinois, Texas and Colorado, said Ann Korschgen, vice provost of enrollment. Students are drawn to MU because of its faculty and academic offerings, she said.
“We have a beautiful campus, a significant array of academic offerings and dedicated faculty,” Korschgen said. Also, “the out-of-state students who attend and graduate from Mizzou have a good experience here and they let their friends back home know how wonderful Mizzou is.”
Compared to last fall’s freshman class, there will be about 40 fewer freshmen from the state of Missouri this year.
The class is more ethnically diverse, enrollment records show. About 660 are African-American, an increase of around 130 from fall 2011 and a 24 percent increase since fall 2009. About 235 freshmen are Hispanic, a rise of nearly 6 percent over the last three years.
The number of Bright Flight freshmen rose by 9.4 percent.
“These incoming students can expect a successful experience at Mizzou, given that our graduation rate is now 70.7 percent, the highest in our history,” Korschgen said.
Residential Life has managed to accommodate the 100 or so students who completed their housing contracts after the May 15 deadline, which meant the students were not promised housing.
Study rooms in Hudson and Gillett halls were converted back to residence rooms to house 22 freshmen, said Residential Life Director Frankie D. Minor. Seventy-three students will be housed temporarily (perhaps through the fall semester) with Residential Life student staff members, who live in double-sized residential rooms.
Students may be assigned to these temporary spaces for most or all of the fall semester.
“We’ve never had this many for temporary housing in our residence halls,” Minor said.
Other freshmen are being accommodated at Tiger Diggs apartments, 301 Campusview Drive, and TRUE Scholars House, 1211 University Ave. Students at these locations are under the same Residential Life contract and policies as other residence halls.
As of July 30, freshmen students were enrolled in 199,636 semester credit hours, said Theodore A. Tarkow, associate dean of the College of Arts and Science. That’s up from 182,452 one year ago.
MU has created classroom space for the additional students through cooperation of the deans and faculty at the education units, he said.
The Division of Biological Sciences, for example, renovated an office lab into a classroom, Tarkow said, and the mathematics department and the Department of Romance Languages and Literature have made room in their classes for the new students. More evening courses are also being scheduled.