MSU’s enrollment hits all-time high

STARKVILLE — Surpassing its historic high numbers last year, Mississippi State University (MSU) reports a fall semester enrollment of 18,601, a 4.4 percent increase over 2008.

Fall enrollment included more than 17,900 on the Starkville campus and 700 at the Meridian campus.

The College of Arts and Sciences remains the largest academic unit, with 4,533 students, followed, respectively, by the education, engineering and business colleges.

Current MSU enrollment includes:

• A student body that is 19.8 percent African-American

• 75 percent of students from Mississippi

• Some 51 percent of students are male, and nearly 49 percent female

• A graduation rate that is 61 percent, the highest at a Mississippi university

Fall enrollment also marks a record high for MSU’s Shackouls Honors College, which currently has more than 1,400 students.

“We have outstanding students with outstanding accomplishments in every discipline on our campus,” MSU president Dr. Mark Keenum said. “Mississippi State will continue to recruit students aggressively in pursuit of our goal of an enrollment of 22,000 by 2015.”