Even though EMU graduated a record 406 students last spring, enrollment has kept pace and is up this fall.
The record total enrollment of 1,513 students – undergraduate, seminary and graduate – compares to 1,436 last fall, according to the university registrar’s office.
Total undergraduate enrollment numbers 933 students, compared to 922 a year ago. Of that total, 228 are first-year students, up 18 over last fall.
“The new first-year class has more racial/ethnic diversity than any previous class,” said Shirley B. Yoder, vice president for enrollment and marketing at EMU. “U.S. minorities make up 21 percent of this class, doubling the composition of the previous class.
“Until this year, we weren’t particularly successful in attracting local Spanish-speaking students,” Yoder said. “But this year, we are pleased to welcome a significant number to campus.”
The number of international students is down this fall, “due primarily to visa difficulties,” she added.
Eastern Mennonite Seminary, a graduate program of theological studies on the EMU campus, has 134 students enrolled this fall compared to 131 last fall. There are 74 students enrolled full time at EMS, two more than the same time last year.
Students in the university’s graduate programs continued modest growth, with 239 enrolled this fall over 229 last fall. The largest increase came in the M.A. in education program at EMU’s Lancaster, Pa., location, up 35 students, from 16 to 51 this fall.
The Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP), an accelerated, non-traditional baccalaureate degree program, has 94 students enrolled this fall on the Harrisonburg campus, down five from last fall, while the Lancaster campus’ ADCP program climbed from 27 to 40 students.
The Intensive English Program (IEP), which prepares international students for undergraduate collegiate work, has 38 full- and part-time students this fall, up eight over a year ago.