Tweet

Rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

• • 

COLUMBIA - Today was the first official day of school at MU, and the population of Columbia jumped by more than 34,000 over the weekend.

The University of Missouri welcomed 900 more students to campus compared to this time last year to set another record in total enrollment, 34,255, up 937 students compared to the first day of school last year.

The number of minority students and freshman also rose this year as 4,940 minority students were enrolled compared to 4,480 last year, a 10.3 percent increase.

The number of Bright Flight students, one measure of quality of the freshman class, rose by 9.4 percent. This year's mean ACT score of 25.7 remained the same as last fall. In comparison, students across the state of Missouri averaged 21.6 oin their ACT, and students throughout the nation had an average score of 21.1 on the ACT.

MU officials also are experiencing more demand in the number of online courses taken through the university. Today, 3,659 students are enrolled in one or more courses taught completely online.