CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A near-record 7,565 freshmen enrolled on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus for the fall semester, according to enrollment statistics released today on the 10th day of classes.
The additional 628 freshmen on campus represents about a 9 percent increase from 2014. The record enrollment was 7,583 students in 2005.
“We’re excited to welcome this class to the campus. They are among the most academically prepared students in the nation and we’re proud that they chose Illinois,” said Barbara J. Wilson, acting chancellor. “As a group they are more diverse than last year, and one in five is a first-generation college student. The percentage of in-state students is up this year, with almost 5,500 coming to us from Illinois ZIP codes. It’s a great class, and now it’s up to us to make sure we deliver on their very high expectations of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.”
More than 34,200 students applied as freshmen for the 2015-16 year, a 4 percent decline on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The number of applications for transfer students declined by nearly 5 percent. Of the 4,704 who applied for transfer to the U. of I., 1,381 enrolled for the fall semester, an increase of 3 percent.
The rate of underrepresented freshmen increased from 15.6 percent the previous year to 17.1 percent in 2015-16. The number of freshmen who are first in their families to attend college was virtually unchanged at just over 20 percent.
The state of Illinois is the top producer of students in the freshman class with 5,490; students from foreign countries total 1,120, representing slightly less than 15 percent of the freshmen total. China has 781 students, India 112 and South Korea 103.
The top enrollment centers for this year's freshman class are the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2,220), the Division of General Studies (1,757) and the College of Engineering (1,622).
The student yield, the difference between those who were accepted and those who enroll in the fall, improved to about 34 percent, an increase from 33 percent the previous year.