October 22, 2009
Record enrollments at UW Bothell, Tacoma this fall
As the 2009-1010 academic year gets under way, the UW’s Bothell and Tacoma campuses are bulging at the seams with record enrollments. Across the UW and all its campuses, the total student population rose about 3 percent over last year.
At the UW Bothell, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) students increased by a whopping 25 percent, from 1,899 in the fall of 2008 to 2,374. The increase in headcount — the total of all students in all categories — was closer to 22 percent, from 2,288 to 2,801.
Meanwhile, the UW Tacoma campus reported an FTE increase of 6.5 percent, totaling 2,671 this fall. The fall 2009 headcount of 3,100 students shows an increase of 5 percent over last year.
The UW’s Seattle campus, with a total student headcount of 42,094, is seeing an increase of 700 students over fall 2008, an increase of 1.7 percent.
Across the UW and its campuses, student headcount rose about 2.9 percent, from 46,653 in 2008 to 48,022 this fall.
Both UW Bothell and UW Tacoma are enrolled beyond the total funded by the state — Bothell by 16 percent and Tacoma by 10 percent. Officials there said the UWB’s transition to a four-year university has resulted in larger enrollments in lower-division and pre-major classes.
Bothell also saw a 66 percent increase in freshman applications, a 30 percent increase in transfer applications and a 37 percent rise in freshman students of color.
At UW Tacoma, applications for entering freshman and transfer students were very high this year. Freshman applications were up 15 percent and transfer applications were up 12 percent over 2008. Transfer applications were up at the Seattle campus, too.
