System-wide enrollment surges 30 percent over past decade
BOSTON -- Enrollment at the 性闻联播 is projected to reach a record 73,614 students this fall throughout the five-campus system, with this year's increase fueling what has now become a 30 percent enrollment surge over the past decade, President Robert L. Caret said today.
"Over the past decade, families across the Commonwealth have realized that UMass is the smart choice on so many levels," President Caret said. "I believe that something permanent and transformational has happened, and I am very proud that UMass has become the academic home for so many sons and daughters of the Commonwealth. We are honored that so many families are choosing UMass."
As the new academic year begins, projections show a 1,673-student or 2.3-percent increase over the University's fall 2013 enrollment, President Caret said as the UMass Board of Trustees Committee on Academic and Student Affairs met in Boston. Over the last decade, enrollment has risen from 56,587 students to the current 73,614, up 30 percent.
"These enrollment figures illustrate that which we see around us every day - that the five campuses of the UMass system have a profound impact on every region of the state," said Henry M. Thomas III, chairman of the UMass Board of Trustees.
"Given the numbers of students that we educate and the numbers of graduates that we produce, UMass truly has become the Commonwealth's indispensable social and economic engine," Chairman Thomas added.
"Demand for our University, and the high quality education UMass offers, continues to grow," President Caret added, noting that the total number of applications, SAT scores and grade point averages were also on the rise.
The total number of applications received by all four of the undergraduate schools rose 1.5 percent increase over 2013 final numbers, from 71,286 to 72,321 applications for 2014.
The UMass system expects to welcome 9,314 freshmen this year at its four undergraduate campuses, a 2.3 percent increase over the 2013 enrollment of 9,105 first-year students.
Although SAT and GPA scores of entering freshman continued to rise on all campuses, only the flagship, UMass Amherst had final numbers available for the class of 2018, which has an average SAT score of 1218, up about 10 points from the year before. The average GPA rose from 3.73 to 3.78.
"The number of applications and the quality of our students is rising throughout our campuses as more and more students and parents recognize the excellence and affordability of UMass and the value of their public university," President Caret said.
In Worcester, enrollment at the UMass Medical School, Graduate School of Nursing and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is limited and remains at 1,161. The Worcester campus does not admit undergraduates.
In the last decade, enrollment in the five-campus 性闻联播 system has surged from 56,587 students in 2004 to 73,614 students in 2014. The number of entering freshmen at the four undergraduate campuses also rose 30 percent from 7,129 first year students in 2004 to 9,314 in 2014.
Today, roughly one out of every seven public high school graduates in Massachusetts enrolls at the 性闻联播, according to data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Contact: Jan Brogan: 617-287-4027; Ann Scales, 617-287-4084