University of St. Thomas hit another new benchmark for enrollment. The undergraduate overall enrollment will be at its highest for a spring semester in University history.

Arthur Ortiz, vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Engagement, cites a couple of factors that have made this spring a milestone.

Trending Up!

“This spring our UG enrollment is 8 percent above last spring. This is great, because most mid-sized institutions are experiencing either enrollment declines or they are treading water.” Ortiz said.

“This high point is the accumulation of the larger classes making their way up the enrollment chain and replacing the smaller graduating classes. Increasing retention helps the number grow too. Specifically, new incoming transfers are a little higher than new transfers last spring,” he said.

The University went to a banded tuition model last fall as well as adapted a test-optional admissions policy.

“The University community has a vision for a bold future,” Jeff Olsen, Vice President for Marketing and University Relations, said. “One of our five-year targets is to increase undergraduate enrollment to 5,000 by 2023 and we are well on our way to achieving that goal.”

The University recently added online associates degrees in technology fields. It plans to open a micro-campus in Conroe this spring to tout its online degrees.

Graduate Enrollment Trending Up in New Programs

UST’s graduate enrollment is trending up. New graduate programs like Applied Data Science, John Paul II Studies and the Master’s in Pastoral Studies Program are experience robust enrollment. The School of Education and Human Services’ new Ed.D. Program has had great success. In fall 2020, the Peavy School of Nursing launched a new Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing and enrollment interest has been strong. This degree will have three start dates, fall, spring and summer.