Official fall enrollment total nears 25,000

The official tenth-day count is in, and NIU's projected enrollment growth ended up surpassing nearly everyone's expectations.

The official number NIU will be reporting this year is 24,948, up 1,166 students from the same time last year. Of that number, 3,032 are new freshmen and 2,444 are new undergraduate transfers.

The total number of undergraduate students this year — 18,105 — represents an increase of 638 undergrad students. Graduate numbers are also way up — at 6,513, NIU is serving 501 more grad students this fall than last.

While new programs at NIU's branch campuses and a new bachelor's-completion partnership program with Rock Valley College brought in some of the overall increase, the number of "on-campus," or DeKalb-based students increased most dramatically — by 683 students.

"We've said it before, and these final numbers just reinforce it: NIU continues to grow in popularity among talented college-bound students," said President John Peters. "Economics and demographics aside, the increase we've experienced this year is a reflection of the quality and value of an NIU education. At the same time, the academic credentials of these new students remains high, with average ACT scores and class rank numbers steady or higher than last year," Peters added.

A complete chart of final tenth-day numbers appears below.