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September 12, 2005 Volume 30, Issue 5 |
Freshman increase drives enrollment above 16,100
A 12 percent increase in new freshmen pushed Mississippi State’s fall enrollment to 16,101, up by 167 students from last year. The 1,966 first-time freshmen outnumber last year’s newcomers by 213 and make up the largest entering class at MSU since 2000.
About 77 percent of MSU’s new freshmen and 77 percent of all students are Mississippi residents. African-Americans make up 19.5 percent of the total. The student body is 51.5 percent male and 48.5 percent female.
This fall’s unduplicated headcount includes 14,395 students on the Starkville campus, 723 at the Meridian Campus, 923 enrolled exclusively in online courses, and 60 in graduate centers at Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis and at the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg.
MSU also saw growth in graduate and professional students, who total 3,546 this fall, while the number of international students continued a decline that began after 2001, dropping to 574 this year.
Fall semester classes began Aug. 18 and this fall’s preliminary headcount was calculated Sept. 2, following the last day to drop a class without receiving a grade.
Although regular registration for the semester ended Aug. 24, the university continued to accept students who had planned to attend classes this fall at institutions disrupted by Hurricane Katrina until Sept. 9. The late-enrolling students displaced by the hurricane will not be included in official fall enrollment figures.