PULLMAN, Wash.–Spring semester headcount enrollment at Washington State University is 16,812 at the Pullman campus and 19,859 statewide, with both figures showing increases from a year ago.
Pullman enrollment, including distance education students, is up 1.6 percent from last spring’s 16,554 students. Enrollment at all four campuses is up 2 percent from 19,474 last spring.
WSU enrolled the largest freshman class in two decades last fall in Pullman, and that increase is the main contributor to spring enrollment growth on the main campus, according to WSU Provost Gretchen Bataille. She released the official 10th day numbers submitted to state offices in Olympia.
“More prospective students and their families recognize the value of a WSU education, just as Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine did when it ranked us 39th in the country among the top public universities for academic quality combined with affordable price,” Bataille said.
“The combination of our nationally ranked Honors College and the growth in merit scholarships due to Campaign WSU makes us very attractive to high achieving students,” the provost said.
Growth in student numbers at both WSU Spokane and WSU Vancouver influenced the statewide enrollment increase.
Enrollment at WSU Vancouver climbed 14.4 percent compared to last spring, at 1,526 headcount students, up from 1,334. WSU Spokane, with its primarily graduate and professional student population, has 438 headcount students, up 9.2 percent from last spring’s 401 students. WSU Tri-Cities has 1,083 students, down from 1,185 last spring.
The Pullman campus has an almost equal number of men and women, 8,509 men and 8,303 women. In comparison, the three branch campuses continue to attract high percentages of women, led by WSU Vancouver with 65 percent women this spring. That campus has 994 women and 532 men students. WSU Spokane has 59 percent women, while WSU Tri-Cities has 56 percent women.
Ethnic minority enrollment was also up compared to last spring. The Pullman campus has 2,182 minority students, up 4.85 percent from 2,081 last spring. WSU Vancouver has109 minority students, up 9 percent, while WSU Spokane has 41 minority students, up from 29, a 41 percent increase. WSU Tri-Cities went to 138 from 141 minority students, a 2.2 percent drop.
The university’s Extended Degree Programs have 376 full-time equivalent students, up 6.5 percent from last spring’s 353 FTE students. A total of 1,009 individual students –both in Washington and nationwide — are currently served by the program. WSU EDP offers the junior and senior years of bachelor’s degrees in social sciences and business, the latter in partnership with other Washington universities. New degrees in criminal justice and human development are close to full approval.
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