Three University of Missouri campuses are showing signs of increased enrollment for the fall semester as they try to rebound from drops caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Compared to this time last year, the number of incoming freshmen who have accepted admission and put down a deposit is up 27% at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Missouri University of Science and Technology and 10% at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Those numbers are bucking national trends.
“Our enrollment is higher despite the fact that there is a significant downtrend nationally,” said Missouri S&T Chancellor Mo Dehghani. “On the average, nationally universities are down by 15%.”
The University of Missouri is more closely following national trends, with accepted student deposits down 13%. But this past week, the school had to expand its in-person options for the summer orientation program.
Part of Missouri S&T’s reversal of fortunes is due to the $300 million gift from alumni Fred and June Kummer. Some of that donation is paying for 500 scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 for four years.
“The scholarships impacted our enrollment curve. You can see a real bend in our enrollment, and that is because of their generous gift,” Dehghani said.
All four campuses are seeing increased interest from transfer students. Accepted transfers to Mizzou, S&T and UMKC are all up more than 22% over last year. Enrollment managers attribute that to last year’s freshmen attending other schools during the pandemic while planning to transfer.
UMSL’s accepted transfer students are up 70% from last year. That’s especially important to the campus that has a larger share of its students coming from nearby community colleges.
The numbers are preliminary as there is still more than five months until the campuses take their official fall enrollment count.
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