College launches plan to grow enrollment by 25 percent over the next six years
Percentage of diverse first-year students reaches an all-time high
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (12/09/2019)—Beginning this fall, the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering (CSE) launched a plan to grow undergraduate enrollment by 25 percent over the next six years. The goal is to address the increasing demand from students applying to the college and meet the growing demand from employers and graduate schools for CSE graduates.
The plan is to increase the number of incoming undergraduate students by 100 each year for the next three years. This would increase overall undergraduate enrollment from about 5,500 to 6,700 within the next six years.
A recently released profile showed that the incoming first-year class grew to 1,289 in fall 2019, 112 more than last year and the largest first-year class in the college’s history. Incoming CSE students remain academically prepared with an average ACT composite score of 31.5, the highest of any college at the University of Minnesota. The average high school rank for incoming students is 91.3 percent.
“The depth and strength of CSE’s undergraduate applicant pool, combined with the excellent post-graduation outcomes, present opportunities to expand the student body,” said CSE Dean Mos Kaveh. “CSE is the organization in the state that can supply the top echelon of the science and technology workforce that employment surveys and the media have identified as necessary for Minnesota’s continued leadership in technology-dependent industries. Rightsizing the University’s science and engineering programs is critical for the future of our state, nation, and world.”
The current CSE freshman class is also the most diverse in the college's history. About 24 percent of the incoming first-year students were students of color. The number of women in the freshman class also reached an all-time high of 408.
“Innovation is driven by diverse points of views and new ways of looking at problems,” said CSE Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs Paul Strykowski. “A more diverse student population is key to building a successful workforce to solve some of our society’s greatest challenges in health care, food security, energy, and many other high tech areas.”
In addition to new freshmen, CSE enrolled 375 new transfer students this fall. Overall, CSE currently has 5,506 undergraduate students and 2,578 graduate students.
In 2018-19, CSE granted 1,492 bachelor’s degrees, 602 master’s degrees, and 243 doctoral degrees. This is a 46.5 percent increase overall in the last 10 years. Just over 94 percent of new bachelor’s degree grads were employed or attending grad school within six months of graduation. About 74 percent of bachelor’s degree graduates were employed in Minnesota, and 83 percent stay in the Midwest.
If you’d like to support students in the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, visit our CSE Giving website.