KENT -- Enrollment at Kent State University has reached an all-time high. According to KSU officials, 42,513 students are enrolled for the Fall 2012 semester throughout the eight-campus system. That tally narrowly beats last Fall's enrollment of 42,185 students.
At the Kent campus, enrollment increased by 2.85 percent to 27,706 students with the number of full-time equivalent students up 3.16 percent.
Students are counted only once at the campus in which they hold a majority of their course load.
"Part of our impressive growth at the Kent campus is the retention of our largest class, which was last year's freshman class," Kent State University President Lester Lefton said. "Kent Campus retention is 77 percent, up 2 percent from last year."
KSU also touts that this Fall's freshmen are the smartest new batch of students in the school's history with the average high school grade point average of 3.27.
Highlights from the Fall 2012 enrollment numbers also include:
- Enrollment of international students is up 19.1 percent to 2,217 students compared to 1,862 in the previous year.
- Enrollment at Kent State University at Geauga is up 3.34 percent. Kent State Geauga reported 1,548 students for Fall 2012 compared to 1,498 in the previous year.
- Graduate enrollment has increased 10.05 percent.
- Enrollment in Kent State's College of Public Health has increased to 676 students (553 undergraduate and 123 graduate students), showing a 428 percent growth since the college's launch with 128 students in Fall 2010.
- Kent State's newest school, the School of Digital Sciences, which started last fall with three students, now has 97 students (69 undergraduate and 28 graduate students) this year, representing a 3,133 percent growth.
- Enrollment in Kent State's College of Podiatric Health, the university's newest college, has 430 students.
Kent State's eight campuses are located in Ashtabula, East Liverpool, Geauga, Kent, Salem, Stark, Trumbull and Tuscarawas.
WKYC-TV