Steven Leath (file photo)
The presidents of the three state-supported universities all had good things to say as they talked about enrollment numbers Wednesday. Iowa State University President Steven Leath saw yet another bump up in students. “The tremendous enthusiasm we’ve seen on our campus continues. and we have seen an unprecedented demand for Iowa State degrees, and this is our seventh straight year for consecutive growth,” Leath says.
The enrollment increase this fall pushed the university to its largest student population in school history. “Our official enrollment stands at 36,001,” Leath says, “that’s a lot of students. That’s an over 3.7 percent increase just from last year.” The previous record enrollment on the Ames campus was 34,732 students last fall. The student population at Iowa State has grown 40 percent in the last decade.
Jean Robillard (file photo)
The University of Iowa also set a record this year. “We have our largest class of first-year students ever — 5,241 — an average ACT of 25.4, an average high school GPA of 3.66, and first year honors students, 1,086,” according to Interim President Jean Robillard.
The total U-I fall enrollment is 32,150 students, compared to 31,387 in 2014.
The University of Northern Iowa had released preliminary figures earlier, and president Bill Rudd released the official enrollment numbers.
Bill Rudd (file Photo)
“We are very excited at the University of Northern Iowa that enrollment is up this year, in fact in every category,” Rudd says. “It is 11,981, and increase from last year’s 11,928. Nineteen-hundred-and-60 new
freshman, up 6.6 percent, 979 new transfer students, up 18.3 percent.”
This is the third consecutive year there’s been an increase in freshmen on campus in Cedar Falls, and this is the first time in five years UNI has seen an increase in transfer students. “We’re going in the right direction, we’ve turned the corner a year early, we’re very, very excited that we are going where we need to go,” Rudd says. The three presidents made their comments Wednesday at the Board of Regents meeting in Cedar Falls.