Overall student enrollment at the University of Michigan for fall 2015 totals nearly 43,700 students, up slightly from last year, with the number of minority students — African-American, Hispanic, Native American, or Hawaiian students — up about 3 percent when compared to 2014.
“The campus — admissions, financial aid, recruitment teams, and our partners across the university — worked together in response to the charge to achieve our target class size and find ways, consistent with state law, to bring further diversity to our student body with this class,” says Kedra Ishop, associate vice president for enrollment management at U-M. She says the minority students make up nearly 13 percent of the incoming class.
Ishop says undergraduate enrollment is down 100 students from about 28,400 a year ago. The number of graduate and professional students increased nearly 1 percent to about 15,300 students.
The incoming freshman class is split about evenly between men and women, and has more in-state students when compared to last year, but fewer international students.
“(By) being more strategic with our early-action process, bringing additional clarity and targeted messaging to our financial aid awards and with aggressive recruitment, we were able to enroll a class that is excellent in all the ways that are consistent with our mission and enables us to provide a Michigan education to a broader range of students,” Ishop says.
She says the percentage of students offered admission that enroll at U-M was at 45 percent, up from 41 percent last fall. Among in-state students, there were about 10,100 applications, 5,050 who were offered admission, and nearly 3,500 who enrolled.
Ishop says the university will spend more than $144 million in undergraduate, need-based financial aid in 2015 — an increase of about 8 percent over the previous year.
IN RELATED U-M NEWS, the university will co-host the Urban Entrepreneurship Symposium next week in Detroit, bringing together business leaders, academics, and community activists to solve urban problems using for-profit business solutions.
The public symposium connects entrepreneurial leaders with students and members of the U-M community to share expertise and tools to inspire entrepreneurs who are working to create businesses that benefit the urban community.
The all-day event will feature keynote speaker Miguel McKelvey, co-founder and creative chief officer at WeWork Inc., a company that establishes collaborative working spaces across the country.
Tickets for the Oct. 23 event cost $50. The symposium will be held at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit’s Midtown district.​
