BOZEMAN – Spring enrollment at Montana State University has set a new all-time record of 16,237 students, marking the fifth consecutive year of spring semester enrollment growth at the state’s largest university.
The new headcount is about 1% larger than this time last year, when the spring enrollment topped 16,000 for the first time in MSU history. Over the past five years, spring headcount at MSU has increased 4.3%.
This spring’s total includes 1,989 graduate students who are pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees and a record 14,248 undergraduate students. The university enrolled 8,187 Montana resident students this spring, comprising just over 50% of the student body.
“As Montana’s land-grant university, Montana State is proud to provide our students with opportunities that lead to academic success and career readiness,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “A record enrollment is more than a number: It reflects MSU’s commitment to fostering access to higher education and, ultimately, service to the people and communities of Montana and beyond.”
Of those first-time-in-college students who enrolled for fall,
“This level of persistence among our students is tremendous,” said Steve Swinford, MSU’s vice president of student success. “MSU’s demonstrated success in keeping our students enrolled is the result of concerted, university-wide efforts to provide support services that create an environment where students are empowered to push through challenges and stay on the path to graduation.”
Those efforts have included streamlining MSU’s registration process, improving communication with students through the NavMSU app, increasing the capacity of key courses that students need to graduate on time and ensuring that students have chances to meet one-on-one with advisers to help them navigate college, said Swinford.
MSU also set a new record in full-time equivalent, or FTE, enrollment, at 14,408. FTE is calculated by dividing the total number of credits that all MSU students have enrolled in by 15 — the number of credits considered a full-time course load for federal reporting. The 1.4% increase in FTE over last spring’s record indicates that individual Montana State students are taking more credits per semester.
Because students do not pay additional tuition for credits beyond the first 12 they take per semester, enrolling in 15 or 18 credits doesn’t add to their tuition bill. In addition to saving students and their families thousands of dollars, taking more credits each academic term helps keep students on track to graduate on time or early, something MSU has championed for more than a decade through the Freshman 15 initiative.
MSU Provost Robert Mokwa noted that MSU’s faculty play a crucial role in student success.
“Faculty at Montana State are the heart of our students’ success,” he said. “From providing exceptional classroom instruction to hands-on research opportunities and individualized advising, our faculty empower students to reach their full potential. MSU’s faculty consistently demonstrate their unwavering commitment to the academic and professional growth of our students. We are proud to have such a dedicated and talented group of educators shaping the future of our students.”
Gallatin College MSU, which offers programs in vocational training and career technical education, saw its headcount increase by 5.8%, setting a record spring enrollment of 1,410. Located in five off-campus locations across the Bozeman area, Gallatin College MSU has been the university’s fastest growing college for years.
Included in Gallatin College MSU’s total are dual-enrollment students — Montana high school students earning college and high school credit at the same time. Their number increased 10.7% compared to last spring, with 763 students taking courses.
In September, MSU announced that it had set a fall enrollment record of 17,144, becoming the first university in Montana history to cross the 17,000-student mark, while also setting records for its graduation rate and student retention.
The enrollment headcount is tallied after the 15th day of classes each semester.
