BYU-Idaho’s incoming class makes history in a record-setting year

BYU-Idaho students enjoy new student orientation activities that include dances and performances.
BYU-Idaho students enjoy new student orientation activities that include dances and performances. | Lauren Bushman

BYU-Idaho is bigger.

Again.

The university welcomed its largest incoming class in history this fall, measured by attendance at new student orientation, which is for any student new to campus. Over 8,000 students participated, four times more than fall 2023.

School officials credited the First-Year Experience Office, created in 2022, with helping new students engage in orientation, a major focus of every college and university in the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That was far from the only record set this year.

A fall semester total enrollment record

The total number of students enrolled at BYU-Idaho in any way during a fall semester is 45,584, the largest in school history.

The total fall 2024 enrollment of campus-based students is up 3.4% over fall 2023 numbers, according to a news release. Here’s the breakdown:

  • 19,388 students enrolled in face-to-face courses, up 3.6%. (This number has actually declined each of the past three years.)

  • 4,723 campus-based students enrolled in online courses and/or internships.

  • 24,111 total.

The overall number bulges to the record when total online enrollment is added.

BYU-Idaho has 21,473 online students this fall through its partnership with BYU-Pathway Worldwide.

A new record for the three, calendar-year semesters

For the biggest number of all, consider the 2024 calendar-year numbers:

  • 33,836 campus-based students served through the school’s unique three-track system. (BYU-Idaho operates three semesters a year, and students are assigned to spend two on campus.)

  • 29,793 online students through BYU-Pathway Worldwide.

  • 63,629 total, another record.

This semester, the campus-based student body consists of 11,849 male students and 12,262 female students (49% percent and 51% percent respectively). The total number of married students is 5,068, comprising 21 percent of the total campus-based student population.

For more information, visit BYU-Idaho’s enrollment data webpage.