Boiler Gold Rush: Purdue announces fall enrollment numbers

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s enrollment at its flagship campus is the highest ever.

This year’s total enrollment at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus reached a record of 46,114 students. This includes 35,122 undergraduates, over 18,000 of whom are Indiana residents and over 8,700 of whom are considered domestic minorities. The incoming class of 8,925 students includes 4,367 Indiana residents.

This year’s incoming class is the largest in Purdue history, signaling continued student demand for a Purdue education. To prepare for the larger number of students, Purdue has opened two new campus residence halls, a new science teaching lab building and additional dining retail food options.

Student volunteers and leaders help move in freshmen during Boiler Gold Rush orientation in August.

Purdue enrollment officers credit the growth to the Protect Purdue Plan and work from faculty, staff and others to make the campus as safe as possible for the return of in-person and hybrid learning options during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purdue also created an online option, which allowed 4,900 students — 4,600 undergraduates and 300 graduate students — who could not be on campus to take courses completely online.

Four- and six-year graduation rates for students who entered in 2016 and 2014, respectively, increased to record highs of 62.6% and 83.3%, an increase over last year’s 60.6% and 82.2%. The one-year retention rate stands at 94% of the class that entered last year.

The mean ACT score is 28.7 on a 36 scale, and SAT scores are 1291 on a 1600 scale. The ACT average is unchanged and the SAT average is down slightly from last year’s record high. The average GPA is 3.60 on a 4.0 scale. Purdue also enrolled 93 new National Merit Scholars — 1% of the incoming class.

Purdue’s minority enrollment continues to grow with 3,773 underrepresented minority undergraduates, representing 12% of domestic enrollment. Purdue now enrolls roughly 1,300 more underrepresented minority students today than it did in 2012.

Meanwhile, 8,737, or 28%, of domestic undergraduates are U.S. minorities, which also includes Asian American students. This is more than double the 4,140 enrolled in 2012.

Summer Start, a direct-admission program created in 2015 by Purdue President Mitch Daniels to expand access to a Purdue education — especially among lower-income, first-generation and minority students who fell just short in the admissions process but are considered otherwise qualified to succeed at Purdue — welcomed more than 300 students to campus this year.

Early Start, a program designed for students admitted for the fall semester who want to get a jump-start on their Purdue education, had a record 654 students this summer.

Purdue also launched the Emerging Leaders Science Scholars program this fall. The initiative is an expansion of the Emerging Leaders program created in 2014 to increase accessibility for underrepresented students.

Other West Lafayette campus enrollment highlights are:

• Graduate enrollment: 10,057.

• Professional enrollment: 935.

• Undergraduate residency: Indiana students, 18,032; U.S. non-Indiana students, 12,816; and international students, 4,274.

• Total enrollment by gender: women, 19,906; men, 26,208.

• Total enrollment by ethnicity: Black or African American, 1,300; Asian, 4,371; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 30; Hispanic/Latino, 2,673; American Indian/Alaska Native, 58; and two or more races, 1,697.

• West Lafayette, 46,114.

• Polytechnic Statewide, 807. Purdue Polytechnic Institute degrees are offered in Anderson, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Lafayette, New Albany, Richmond, South Bend and Vincennes.

• Numbers for Purdue University Northwest, Purdue University Fort Wayne and Indiana-University-Purdue University Indianapolis will be released later in September.