The Universities of Wisconsin saw its total enrollment increase by 1,058 to 163,589, according to preliminary first-day student counts.
The 0.7% increase brought the system to its highest enrollment level since 2020, even amidst issues with the federal government’s rollout of a new FAFSA form for financial aid.
“We simply didn’t see the typical late surge of enrollments that we would have in normal years and that comes down to FAFSA completion and uncertainty over financial aid awards,” said Jay Rothan, president of the Universities of Wisconsin.
The increase marks the second straight year of enrollment increases. Official enrollment totals will be based on the 10th day of enrollment. That data will be released in November.
According to the preliminary data, the University of Wisconsin-Madison led the way with an absolute increase of 1,394 compared to last year’s official count, an increase of 2.8%.
Excluding UW-Madison, enrollment was down around 330 or 0.8%.
UW-Green Bay saw the biggest percentage increase in enrollment with a 4%. UW-Whitewater was third with a 2.3% increase. Five other campuses – La Crosse, Superior, Stevens Point, River Falls and Eau Claire – saw increases.
UW-Milwaukee saw a decrease of around 0.8%, a drop of 186 students.
Three campuses – Parkside, Platteville and Oshkosh – saw decreases of greater than 3% with Platteville and Oshkosh topping 4%.
UW-Stout was down around 1%.
