For the second year in a row, the University of Wyoming has seen an overall increase in enrollment. Kyle Moore, UW's Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, said the most notable increase is the freshman class. At 1,850 students, that's a 9.5 percent increase from last year.
Moore attributes the gains to improvements in the way UW staff engages prospective students.
"We wanted to make sure we were connecting with students about the academic excellence here at the University of Wyoming," said Moore. "We have been working hard to make sure students know they are individually of importance in the process of enrolling here."
And that message is reaching students from outside Wyoming. Moore said the number of out-of-state students in the freshman class is up 22.4 percent from last year. Those students predominantly hail from Colorado, California, Illinois and Nebraska.
Moore said UW wants to also see the number of Wyoming students on the rise too.
"What we want to do is help our students in Wyoming, our residents, to understand the great benefit in higher education in general."
Moore said UW will continue to partner with high schools and the state's community colleges to encourage more Wyomingites to pursue higher education. He said in-state transfers did go up slightly this year.