WT freshman, sophomore numbers up for spring semester

West Texas A&M University showed yearover-year growth in key metrics of student enrollment in new data released today.

The freshman class grew nearly 3 percent over spring 2022 and the sophomore class grew nearly 9 percent, continuing a trend observed in underclassmen since last year. Those gains helped WT’s overall undergraduate numbers to trend upward.

The number of fulltime undergraduate students and full-time graduate students grew more than 4 percent in year-to-year numbers.

WT retained more than 90 percent of freshmen who began in fall 2022, up almost 4 percent from last spring’s retention figures.

“Our undergraduate enrollment has begun to rebound from the pandemic downturn that hit the entire nation. As important as enrolling new students is to WT, equally exciting is that these enrolled students are performing well,” said Mike Knox, vice president for enrollment management. “Firsttime students who started in fall 2021 were retained at a record-high number, and the fall 2022 class is exceeding even those figures. We are rebuilding our enrollment from the bottom up with students who are succeeding.”

Also continuing a trend from spring 2022: WT’s doctoral program enrollment is on an upswing, growing nearly 7 percent over the previous year.

The 12th class day is when Texas’ public universities traditionally report enrollment in the spring and fall semesters. For spring 2023, WT has 6,271 undergraduate students and 2,188 graduate students.

Growth was seen in every College at the University: the Department of Sports and Exercise Sciences in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, up more than 12 percent; the Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work in the Terry B. Rogers College of Education and Social Sciences, up about 11.5 percent; the Department of History in the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts & Humanities, up almost 10 percent; the Department of Mathematics, up almost 9 percent, and the Department of Engineering and Computer Sciences, up almost 5 percent, both in the College of Engineering; the Department of Agricultural Sciences in the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, up nearly 7 percent; and the Department of Computer Information and Decision Management in the Paul & Virginia Engler College of Business, up about 3.5 percent.

The number of Hispanic students grew nearly 1 percent, now making up nearly 30 percent of the total student body.

WT has been qualified as a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016. To qualify, an institution’s Hispanic full-time equivalency must be at least 25 percent of the overall undergraduate population.

The number of transfers from junior colleges has begun to increase, rising more than 8 percent. Those numbers had been dropping since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020.

Overall, WT’s enrollment dipped a little more than 2 percent since spring 2022.

Providing a nurturing yet rigorous educational environment for learners of all levels is a key component of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign.