Angelo State University Enrollment Tops 10,000 Students

SAN ANGELO, TX — For the first time ever, Angelo State University’s overall enrollment has surpassed 10,000 students, allowing ASU to reach its long-term enrollment goal a full three years ahead of schedule.  

After again posting an all-time record fall enrollment in 2016 with 9,601 students, ASU has now topped that record with a total of 10,447 students enrolled at the university for the fall 2017 semester. Shortly after joining the Texas Tech University System in 2007, ASU set an enrollment goal in its “Vision 2020” strategic plan of 10,000 students by the year 2020. 

Graduate student enrollment reached 1,628, which is 136 more than the 1,492 grad students who enrolled last fall. This marks the 16th consecutive long semester in which the College of Graduate Studies and Research has recorded a new enrollment high, and also marks the first time that graduate enrollment has surpassed 1,600. 

Another major factor in the record enrollment is the 2,922 students enrolled through ASU’s dual credit program, up from 2,311 last fall. High school students in school districts throughout West and Central Texas are earning both high school and ASU credit for courses taught on their high school campuses.  

First-time freshman enrollment remained steady from 2016 while an increase was seen in the undergraduate retention rate, resulting in a total undergraduate enrollment of 5,897 students this fall, up from the 5,798 enrolled in the fall of 2016. 

ASU President Brian J. May said, “In addition to improving our recruiting and retention efforts for traditional students, we knew that to meet our enrollment goal we would have to implement new courses and strategies to attract more online graduate students and dual-credit students. Thanks to those efforts, the Ram Family now stretches across Texas, throughout the U.S. and around the world. We are also in the midst of our biggest new construction boom since the 1980s, which will benefit the growing number of on-campus students, as well as our faculty and staff. It’s an exciting time to be at Angelo State because we are 10,000 strong.”

“Congratulations to Angelo State University on achieving this monumental milestone of 10,000 students,” Texas Tech University System Chancellor Robert Duncan said. “Reaching this goal is a testament to the university’s excellence in recruiting and retaining quality students, as well as first-class faculty and staff. This is an accomplishment the Texas Tech University System and Ram Family are extremely proud of. Angelo State is truly 10,000 strong.”