A historically large freshman class highlights University of Michigan-Dearborn’s fall 2017 enrollment report for the second consecutive year. This, along with strong retention and increases in transfer and graduate enrollment, contributed to the university’s fourth straight year of enrollment gains.
Total enrollment is a record 9,339 students, up 2.28 percent from last year. More than 97 percent of the population hails from Michigan, with strong representation from Wayne (6,549 students), Oakland (1,460 students), Washtenaw (347 students) and Macomb (339 students) counties.
Freshman enrollment is up nearly 3 percent from last year’s historically large class. At 1,106 students, this marks the largest freshman class in nearly 40 years. The class is bolstered by significant growth in the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS), where freshman enrollment is up 12.8 percent this fall to 423 students; CECS freshman enrollment is up 47.4 percent in the past four years.
Transfer enrollment also increased 4.78 percent to 789 students, with the College of Business (up 11.9 percent to 188 students) seeing the largest gains.
First year retention remained high at 81 percent. Retention of UM-Dearborn’s Opportunity Scholars—a learning community for high-achieving students from the state’s most economically disadvantaged high schools—increased to 84.7 percent.
New graduate student enrollment increased more than 3 percent from last year to 641 students, with significant growth in the College of Business and the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters contributing to this year’s increase.
Diversity among the student body remains strong. Students of color represent more than 24 percent of the entire student population and more than 28 percent of the freshman class.
