October 20, 2014
UW student population grows, minority enrollment continues upward trend
Enrollment for the three University of Washington campuses increased nearly 3 percent in the new school year, according to the finalized Fall 2014 census of enrolled students released by Philip Ballinger, associate vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions.
Total enrollment grew from 52,661 to 54,223, with the Seattle campus adding more than 1,000 students, up 2.3 percent to 44,786, compared with 43,762 the previous year. While 47 states, plus Washington, D.C., are represented, 77.1 percent of all freshmen at UW campuses are residents of Washington.
Undergraduate enrollment at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma also increased from last year, 7.4 percent and 5.6 percent respectively.
The university saw progress on most high-level measures in underrepresented minorities, academic strength and gender balance. Of note, 4.5 percent of state resident students in the freshman class are African-American, which equals the proportion of African-American students in Washington’s public schools.
Graduate enrollment across all three campuses is just shy of 13,000, with the underrepresented minority graduate enrollment up 4 percent. Underrepresented minorities make up 11 percent of all graduate students, continuing the upward trend of minority enrollment in each of the last 10 years (compared to 6.4 percent in 2005).
Some quick facts and figures for the Fall 2014 enrollment:
- The freshman application pool for the Seattle campus increased by 4.7 percent overall (up 9.7 percent for non-resident applications and down 4.3 percent for resident applications, reflecting an overall decline in the number of high school graduates) for a total of 31,611 applications (10,459 resident and 21,152 non-resident).
- The overall admission rate for the Seattle campus freshman class was 55.2 percent (68 percent for residents and 48.9 percent for non-residents [54 percent for U.S. non-residents and 39.8 percent for international non-residents]).
- The mean GPA of the Seattle campus freshman class is 3.76.
- The Seattle campus freshman class is 51 percent female and 49 percent male (it was 52.8 percent female and 47.2 percent male in 2013).
- A record number of African-American students enrolled in this year’s Seattle campus freshman class – 216 compared to 181 last year. The African-American proportion of the class is also a record at 3.4 percent. The overall underrepresented student proportion of class is 12.81 percent this year, compared to 12.58 percent in 2013.
- At 26 percent, UW Tacoma has its highest ever population of undergraduate underrepresented minorities.
- At 19 percent, UW Bothell’s underrepresented minority population is its highest ever.
- Among UW Bothell students with declared majors, 29 percent (793) are in science, technology, engineering and math, up from 25 percent last year (648), 16 percent in 2010 (300), and 11 percent in 2008 (153), representing more than double the STEM majors compared to five years ago, and five times the number from seven years ago.
- Eight years after welcoming its first freshman class, UW Tacoma freshmen now make up 11 percent of campus enrollment.
- The Seattle campus also enrolled 1,551 transfer students, of which 1,341 (86.5 percent) were from Washington community colleges (these figures exclude exchange students). And 103 students (included in the totals) enrolled in Online Degree programs this year compared to 44 last year.
