UW Enrollment Increase

The University of Wyoming’s spring semester enrollment increased 1.4 percent over last year. The 10,388 students enrolled on the 15th day of classes are up from 10,246 at the same time last year, reflecting increases in first-time and transfer students enrolling at the midpoint of the academic year. According to information from the University of Wyoming, those new enrollments, combined with a fall-to-spring first-time retention rate exceeding 93 percent, have produced UW’s first year-over-year overall enrollment increase since before the COVID pandemic.

The increase in new enrollments this spring is reflected in all three categories of first-time undergraduate students, transfer students and graduate students. While Wyoming residents are responsible for the bulk of the overall enrollment increase, the biggest share of undergraduates enrolling for the first time this spring came from out of state. As UW’s in-state student enrollment is beginning to rebound from the pandemic, nonresident student numbers have declined. The university has taken a number of steps to reverse that trend, including enhanced marketing and recruitment efforts in states including Colorado, Texas, California, Illinois, Arizona and Washington.

Additionally, the university has stepped up its student success efforts, and those are reflected in the overall enrollment increase as well. The percentage of students retained from the fall 2024 semester to this spring semester rose to 93.1 percent, continuing a steady increase from 89.7 percent in the 2020-21 academic year. Fall-to-fall retention — the university’s biggest measure of student retention — rose to 79 percent in the fall 2024 semester, up from 76 percent in 2020.