University of Michigan shrinks freshman class but grows overall fall 2012 enrollment to 43,426

Although University of Michigan freshmen enrollment decreased slightly this fall, the Ann Arbor campus enrolled more graduates and undergraduates than ever before.

Total enrollment at the university is 43,426, a 1.7 percent increase that marks the largest student body in university history.

Enrollment at U-M's Ann Arbor campus is among the largest in the country, although smaller than Michigan State University's enrollment.

By design the university shrunk its freshmen class, which stands at 6,171 students, evenly male and female.

During the previous two years U-M's freshman class was larger than desired —6,496 in 2010 and 6,251 in 2011— causing a housing crunch and leading to overfilled classes.

Earlier this year, admissions director Ted Spencer told AnnArbor.com he wanted to shrink size of the 2012 freshman class below 6,000.

"Our goal is to maintain fairly stable enrollment numbers overall," says Spencer. "This ensures that enrollment is scaled to resources."

From fall 2008 to fall 2012, U-M's freshman class size has grown nearly 7 percent. U-M reports a 97 percent freshmen retention rate, which is high amongst public schools.

Overall, there are 27,979 undergraduates and 15,447 graduate students.

There are more than 2,000 more men enrolled than women.

Underrepresented minorities make up 10 percent of the freshmen class, a 0.5 percent decrease from 2011 and a 0.6 percent decrease from 2010.

Overall, there are 2,207 blacks, 1,785 latinos, 442 Native Americans and 81 Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders enrolled. At 5,689 students, Asian Americans, who are not considered underrepresented, make up 13.1 percent of the school's total student body.

This year 13.5 percent of the student body —5,881 students— are considered international, an increase of roughly five percent from last year.

U-M first- and second-year undergraduate tuition this year is $12,994 for Michigan residents and $39,122 for out-of-state students.

Applications

Freshmen applications to U-M have grown significantly over the past four years. In 2008 the school received 29,814 applications. This fall it received a record 42,544.

U-M received an uptick of 3,000 applications this year, which is also attributed to the rise of the Common Application. Spencer predicted the increase last year.

The school received its largest surge of applications in fall 2011, when applications grew by nearly 8,000. Spencer attributed the increase to the adoption of the Common Application, which allows high schoolers to apply to multiple universities using near-identical applications.

Meanwhile, freshmen admits have grown by roughly 3,000 students since 2008. Today, U-M's acceptance rate is 37 percent, compared to roughly 42 percent in 2008.

This year 15,551 students were admitted. Roughly 9,000 applicants were offered a spot on U-M's waitlist. Of that pool, about 100 students were offered entry into the class of 2016.

Of the students accepted, 40 percent enrolled. In 2008 the rate was higher at 46 percent.

U-M officials did not provide an immediate breakdown of resident versus non-resident enrollment, but AnnArbor.com will update readers when this information becomes available.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.