More than 7,000 students have arrived on Michigan Tech’s campus to start the fall
semester, including the second-largest class of incoming first-year Huskies since 1984.
Following last year’s record-breaking enrollment, Michigan Technological University
welcomed 7,073 students to campus this fall, including 1,388 incoming first-year students. John Lehman, vice president for university relations and enrollment, said last year’s class of new first-year students and this year’s class represent the two largest
since 1984. He also noted that the average GPA of 3.83 for this year’s incoming class is a new University record. Overall
enrollment grew 1%.
“We’re so pleased to welcome another talented group of students to Michigan Tech,” said Lehman. “Over the course of the day first-year students move
in, I ask them and their parents, ‘Why Tech?’ I heard it’s the quality of faculty
and the opportunity to work closely with them from day one. I heard they want the
rigorous academic challenge and the preparation that experience provides. And of course I heard they want the
high salary offers that our degrees command in the employment marketplace.”
More than 2,100 of Michigan Tech’s current students are women, continuing a decade of steady increase in the number
of women choosing Tech. Women will make up nearly 30% of the student body — the University’s
highest percentage ever.
And for the third straight year, the proportion of students from domestic underrepresented
minority groups grew and now make up over 11.5% of the student body.
To Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Wallace Southerland III, these numbers suggest encouraging trends. “Once again, Tech’s enrollment numbers reveal what we already know to be true — that Michigan Tech is a flagship technological university where students of all backgrounds
want to be. We offer exceptional academic programs taught by superior faculty and
we offer extraordinarily excellent student development experiences at a reasonable
cost for families.”
“The quality of the academics we offer and the unique life experience that Huskies get while they’re at Tech continue to attract a student body that is
exceptionally smart and increasingly diverse.”
Since 2014, enrollment in programs now within the College of Computing has nearly
doubled, averaging more than 11% year-over-year growth. [Enrollment in current College of Computing programs is shown in gold. The secondary
axis (black) plots relative growth since 2014.]
Of the University’s five colleges, none is growing faster than the College of Computing. “The demand for computing talent in the tech industry has never been stronger,”
said Dennis Livesay, dean of the College of Computing. “Our college’s growth reflects
that demand. We’re thrilled to be offering the quality of education that our students
need for success in the 21st century workforce.”
The College of Engineering has been Michigan Tech’s most prominent college for many generations, and its reputation
for producing some of the world’s most successful engineers continues to thrive. Programs
seeing increases