Athens, Ga. – Spurred by growth in several colleges and schools, the University of Georgia has its largest student body in history this fall with an enrollment of 34,885. The fall semester enrollment is up 705 students (two percent) above last fall when the enrollment topped 34,000 for the first time, with several newer colleges, schools and programs recording enrollment growth of 12 percent or more.
The Faculty of Engineering saw the biggest enrollment increase this fall with a 192.3 percent growth from 39 students in 2008 to 114 students this year. This increase is due in part to the first time acceptance of freshmen into the engineering program.
The College of Public Health saw a 50.8 percent enrollment increase with the addition of 157 students.
The Odum School of Ecology and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources also saw significant growth with enrollment increases of 27 percent and 22 percent respectively.
The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences saw a 12.7 percent growth with the addition of 189 students over last year’s enrollment of 1,483.
Total enrollment includes 33,826 students on UGA’s main campus in Athens, up two percent from last year, and 953 students at the university’s extended campuses in Gwinnett County, Tifton, Griffin and Buckhead in Atlanta-a one percent increase from last fall. An additional 106 students are enrolled in independent study.
On the main campus in Athens, undergraduate enrollment totals 25,913, up by 712 over last year, and graduate enrollment decreased by 15 students to a total of 6,309. Enrollment in the professional schools of law, pharmacy and veterinary medicine increased by 51 students to a total of 1,604.
“The demand for enrollment at UGA continues to grow given the quality of our educational programs. I am particularly pleased to see growth in many of our new and existing programs,” said Arnett C. Mace, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I commend the deans, faculty and staff of these units for the recruitment of these outstanding students to their programs and to UGA.”
Of the total 34,885 enrollment, 8,132 students had never attended UGA before including 4,332 first-time freshmen who enrolled this fall. Combined with 320 first-time freshmen who enrolled this summer, the total count of first-time freshmen for summer and fall is 4,652.
Of the first-time freshmen who enrolled this fall, 363 had earned enough academic credit through joint-enrollment or advanced placement programs to be classified as sophomores, and 10 had enough credit to be classified as juniors.
