Eastern sees total enrollment decrease

Staff Report

Eastern’s overall enrollment has dropped from 8,520 students last fall to a total of 7,415 students for the Fall 2016 semester.

According to a press release sent by the university, freshman enrollment fell from 1,673 students in the Fall 2015 semester to 1,251 this year, while there are 1,073 sophomores enrolled this year compared to 1,295 last year.

Upperclassmen numbers also took a hit with 1,447 juniors enrolled this year, as opposed to last year’s 1,791. Seniors went from 2,385 students last year to 2,138 for the Fall 2016 semester.

Two areas that went up in enrollment are graduate and international student numbers.

The number of graduate students is up 1,458 from last year’s 1,318, increasing by 10.6 percent. There are now 433 international students, an increase from 291 in 2015.

The percentage of minority students at Eastern is 26.1 percent.

Undergraduate student numbers dropped from 7,202 students to 5,957, or 17.3 percent, from last year.

In the press release, it said this includes a drop in transfer students from 798 in Fall 2015 to 536.

Check back for an updated version of this story.

The News Staff can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]