While many regional public universities have experienced significant financial hardships and enrollment challenges, UM-Dearborn is seeing encouraging enrollment performance.
This year’s incoming class of full-time, first-year students is up 4.7%. Among all incoming students, there is a 7% increase in students of color, Pell-eligible students are up 7% and graduate students are up 27%.
Total enrollment this fall is 8,104, with 6,187 undergraduates and 1,917 graduate students.
The academic profile of UM-Dearborn’s first-year students is third-highest among the state’s public universities, with a 3.7 average grade-point average. The university’s four-year graduation rate has increased 9% over the past three years, and the six-year graduation rate increased 2% over last year.
“These increases are the result of hard work by the enrollment management team and many others across campus,” said UM-Dearborn Chancellor Domenico Grasso. “Many strategies have been put into place — such as the One-Stop Service model, block tuition, the conversion of three-credit classes to four credits and our revised financial aid model — that have a direct impact on recruitment and retention. I am most proud of our substantial increases in graduation rates, a true testament to student success.”
UM-Dearborn is attracting more traditional full-time students, who are graduating more quickly than prior cohorts.
All of this good news is the result of a lot of behind-the-scenes effort, said Melissa Stone, vice provost for enrollment management. “Our enrollment strategy is working. In addition to new initiatives we put in place over the past few years, we have worked as a campus to create an environment where we are all working together as a community to make sure our students are connected to the information and resources they need to be successful.
“Our faculty and staff are dedicated to our students. When our students succeed, so do we.”
To address a slight enrollment drop in previous years, the university developed a Strategic Enrollment Management Plan, identifying student-focused enrollment obstacles and state-level challenges and outlined solutions.
A streamlined transfer admissions process is designed to address the university’s previous transfer-student enrollment decline. It ranges from forming a dedicated team to work with transfer students to holding more on-site visits with community college partners. Efforts have resulted in a 2% transfer-student increase this year.
To counteract the state’s shrinking high school population, UM-Dearborn expanded its dual-enrollment opportunities to help potential new students become more familiar with campus. And to attract domestic graduate students, the university resumed in-person open houses after a COVID-19 disruption, waived admission fees and appointed a new dean of graduate studies, Armen Zakarian.
The university also has invested more in need-based financial aid. For the fall 2024 first-year class, 44% of students pay no tuition, thanks to financial aid packaging that includes UM-Dearborn’s Go Blue Guarantee and the state’s Michigan Achievement Scholarship.
Stone said the SEM Plan initiatives are yielding results. For example, the first-time undergraduate student numbers remain healthy. “The last two academic years have seen the largest first-year classes,” she said.
Stone said students are attracted to UM-Dearborn because of its location, affordability and supportive, welcoming atmosphere. But what gets them to enroll and stay is making sure they have what they need to be successful.
“The SEM Plan helps us align time and resources by developing a shared vision of the most impactful initiatives to support the success of current and future students to meet our enrollment goals,” she said. “We know there is always work to be done, but I’m proud of our campus efforts and where we are with enrollment this year.”
See additional student profile and trends.
Story by Sarah Tuxbury
