Spring enrollment data is almost worthless. Now if we see a number like that in the Fall, then ya I will agree that’s fucking awful. I almost hate that we even started a thread like this.
Why is it worthless? It's not comparing fall to spring, it's comparing spring to spring.
By your count, the msu enrollment is 14,415.959.
Guys. We have to quit lying to ourselves. Our enrollment numbers are absolutely red alert awful currently. For the sake of the future of our UM, we absolutely need our new president to understand how poorly these numbers actually are.5 straight years now….
Up Again: UM’s Spring Enrollment Increases for Fifth Consecutive Year
Spring 2026 enrollment numbers are in, and for the fifth consecutive year, the University of Montana reported more students than the previous year.www.umt.edu
This is why you need to actually care about the university as a whole and not just the objectives that drive funding from the state. Anyone who cares about the university knows that we are way down from the peaks of the early 2000’s. But they keep throwing out these reports like we are excelling, but anctuall we are just highlighting metrics based figures that make it appear better than it is. I really hope we get someone in who wants to highlight the positives on this campus to move ahead and not just coast by. A new dorm will help, but campus and Missoula life need to become vibrant again.
agree.There fixed it for you. That fact you made that statement tells everyone you already lost the argument.
spring enrollment goes up and down with student retention at least as much as graduation. and student retention is one of the golden keys to university success... but that said, the numbers are nothing to celebrate.
Nothing to celebrate at all. Our grad school numbers are solid. However, the 4 year undergrad, and new freshman enrollment numbers, are truly abysmal and bodnar, before he slid out the door for politics, should not have been retained. For 15 years, montana families, many of whom I know well, continue to lament the lack of effort UM has shown towards recruiting prospective students is inexcusable. The BOR desperately needs to understand this in the hiring of our new president.
I don’t blame this just on the school. Missoula as a city isn’t viewed as the great place it was in the late 90s and early 2000s. Crime, open drug use, and homelessness is a big turn off. We need to look from the outside in.
I don’t think that’s a big issue. Kids I’ve spoken too, some of which have said they don’t like Bozeman cause it’s crazy expensive and full of snobs, but that they like msu as a school. I don’t hear a lot of people complain about Missoula, but even if they do there’s still ways UM can make themselves attractive.
Missoula has a reputation of being the furthest you can go to the left in Montana and Zoomers are generally more conservative than Millennials. Gen Alpha is likely going to be more progressive like millennials and reverse this trend atleast based on politics back to when millennials were in college from the early aughts to the mid 2010s which was when UM and Missoula was thriving in comparison to Bozeman.
No, less enrollment at UM means more money allocated to MSU and the same will be true when the trend reverses.
