Over the past year fall semester enrollment at Washington State University’s four campuses grew by 2.5 percent—from 21,248 to 21,794. The freshman class at the Pullman campus is the second largest in history and the most diverse ever, with students of color totaling 409, or 15 percent of the class. The class total increased to 2,619 from a fall 2000 total of 2,473. Transfer students were up from 1,318 to 1,329.
“We are pleased with these solid numbers,” said Charlene Jaeger, vice president for student affairs. “The University plans to attract the most able students. We are interested in quality, not quantity.”
The average high school grade-point average for the new freshman class is 3.40.
Enrollment of students of color in Pullman grew 5.4 percent from last fall. African American students increased from 489 to 553, Asian Americans from 931 to 964, Hispanics from 582 to 606, and Native Americans from 275 to 278.
The number of students of color represents more than 13 percent of the total enrollment.
The enrollment of 1,083 students at WSU Tri-Cities was down by 30. WSU Spokane enrollment increased from 672 to 720, a 7.1 percent hike. WSU Vancouver increased from 1,618 to 1,678, or 3.7 percent. The Pullman campus increase from 17,848 to 18,321 amounted to 2.7 percent.