An initial rundown of fall semester enrollment numbers at North Dakota State University in Fargo shows an increase of 5.3 percent from last year.
Initial enrollment numbers at UND will be available today, according to university spokesman Peter Johnson. He said the number of new freshmen and transfer students is up, though he did not know by how much.
At NDSU, 12,871 students were enrolled as of the first day of class, including a record 2,648 freshmen. That's 473 more freshmen than last year.
Last fall, UND had 12,559 students, NDSU 12,527.
Lake Region State College in Devils Lake reported 1,199 students, both part- and full-time, enrolled on the first day of classes. That's up from 988 students at this time last year.
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The fact that more part-time students enrolled earlier this year led to the increase, according to Erin Wood, director of marketing and public relations. Wood said she expects the number to increase over the next few weeks. Last fall, official enrollment at Lake Region was 1,520.
Initial enrollment numbers at UND were not available Monday afternoon, Johnson said, because the numbers are counted after the first day of class is complete.
"There are students today who are being admitted and students today who are dropping out," he said Monday afternoon. "At the end of the day, after all the shifting, we run a computer program overnight that calculates it all out."
A final fall enrollment number will come sometime in the next four weeks.
"We still have a fair number enrolling, and some who will drop out for whatever reason. It's a real shifting number," Johnson said.
Johnson said it's been part of the university's strategic plan to increase the number of graduate students from 12 percent to 20 percent.
"We're not at that point yet," he said. "But the number of graduate students has increased significantly."
At NDSU, housing space has been an issue. Right now, the university has arranged for overflow housing at nine different Fargo hotels, and 104 additional beds have been arranged on campus.
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In Grand Forks, there shouldn't be a need for overflow housing, Johnson said.
"We actually bought a hotel a couple of years ago," he said. "And we have a new residence hall -- University Place -- that opened. We're pretty well set on housing."
