There was a 10.2% increase in first-year students enrolled in UW, up from 1,477 in fall 2021 to 1,627 in fall 2022.
This is the second year there has been an increase in first-year enrollment after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“In 2020 and then 2021, a lot of students pressed pause on their pursuit of higher education,” Kyle Moore, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management, said. “This fall 2022 is really the first semester that has been held after the subsiding of the pandemic.”
While the pandemic was still at its height, there were some students who decided to try online education.
“Online was pretty much the only option for classes during my freshman year and so I spent most of my time in my dorm,” Wyatt Ebben, a junior, said. “There were some things I could do but it was hard because I ended up being shut in my room most of the time.”
The pandemic caused student retention challenges as indicated by declines in the sophomore, junior, and senior classes as well as the drop in new transfer students this fall.
However, the recent increase in enrollment is an indication that the school will soon turn the corner on the pandemic-driven drop in overall enrollment that institutions across the country have experienced.
“We are always interested in growth from an enrollment standpoint,” Moore said. “The more students that we have here, the more opportunities we then have to provide them with experiences and academic opportunities.”
Enrollment Management has a series of years of both higher recruitment and stronger student retention planned in order to continue increases in enrollment.
“Each year, we host a series of events. We just recently had the annual Campus Pass event,” Moore said. “We will have additional events called Discovery Days as well as Showcase Saturdays and the Transfer 101 session offered every month.”
Everything that Enrollment Management does is geared to helping students understand the process of higher education and to make sure they have an enjoyable experience no matter the situation.
