UW-Madison enrollment tops 50,000 students, breaking university record

The University of Wisconsin-Madison student body is now the 13th largest city in the state, surpassing Sheboygan, Wauwatosa and Fond du Lac. It could potentially pass La Crosse in population size next year.

Student enrollment has topped 50,000 for the first time in university history, according to numbers released Monday. The official count clocked 50,662 on the 10th day of classes.

The UW System last year reported UW-Madison enrollment was 50,001, but it was an estimate taken on the first day of class. The official number for last school year came in at 49,886.

Will UW-Madison ever stop growing? It's a question top of mind for current students, some of whom are struggling to find affordable housing near campus.

"We don’t have specifics to provide at this time," Derek Kindle, vice provost for enrollment management, told the Journal Sentinel by email when asked about the long-term strategy and whether there were a cutoff point, such as 60,000 students. "We’re constantly evaluating our enrollment targets and adjusting them to meet the needs of campus."

Other takeaways from the university's enrollment report:

It's getting harder to get into UW-Madison

UW-Madison is a school in high demand. About 63,500 prospective freshmen applied for a seat, breaking last year's record of about 60,000 applications.

In addition, the university purposely reduced the size of its freshman class to make up for larger-than-expected classes in recent years.

Gaining admission this year was the most competitive since at least 1989. About 43% of applicants were accepted.

But if you're from Wisconsin, you have a better chance

Six in every 10 Wisconsin applicants received an admissions letter. That's a much higher rate than students coming from Minnesota, other states or outside the U.S.

UW-Madison enrolled 3,813 Wisconsin students, which is the second-highest number of state students the university has ever enrolled.

That's above the minimum 3,600 Wisconsin students UW-Madison is expected to enroll under UW Board of Regents policy.

Freshman class is getting more diverse

This year's incoming class includes the highest percentage of underrepresented students of color in UW-Madison history, rising from 10% a decade ago to about 18% this year.

The class is also the last to enroll under an application process in which UW-Madison considered race as one of many factors in admissions decisions.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer restricts the use of race in college admissions. Other schools where race was already removed from the admissions process saw the number of Black and Hispanic students enrolled drop.

Kindle offered few details on what strategies UW-Madison said it is trying this year in the wake of the ruling and said he couldn't estimate how the racial makeup of future incoming classes might change.

"UW–Madison remains committed to clearly and continually reaching out to students and families from all backgrounds and lived experiences to ensure they know our campus is a place for them," he said. "Although not new, we want to build and strengthen our relationships in schools and communities where talented students with a wide array of backgrounds, experiences and interests live."

More than 800 students see most all college costs covered

About a quarter of new Wisconsin students came from households earning $65,000 or less. This qualified them for Bucky's Tuition Promise, a program providing full tuition coverage.

The overwhelming majority of those students will also have their housing, food, books and other expenses covered through a new program called Bucky's Pell Pathway.

Both programs are paid with private donations and other institutional resources, not taxpayer money.

Republicans want to guarantee admission to top 5% of Wisconsin high school students

The makeup of this year's freshman class: 48% are from Wisconsin, 10% hail from Minnesota, 34% come from other states and 8% are from other countries.

Some lawmakers have questioned the state flagship's level of commitment to Wisconsin.

Republicans introduced a bill guaranteeing admission to UW-Madison for all Wisconsin high school students ranking in the top 5% of their class. The Assembly held a hearing on it last month.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin told a faculty committee this summer that UW-Madison already admits about 95% of the students who would be guaranteed admission under the bill.

UW-Madison has some concerns with the bill because opportunities vary widely across Wisconsin high schools. That's why admissions officers consider a range of factors through what they call a holistic admissions process.

"Class rank alone does not provide this and is not necessarily an indicator or predictor of success and does not provide meaningful value to our admissions team, absent the other information reviewed in a holistic process," Kindle said.

Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: University of Wisconsin-Madison enrollment for 2023 tops 50,000