From the President - Fall 2018
A Message from the President
Fellow alumni, I want to express my appreciation for your continuing engagement with Michigan State. With our capital campaign drawing to a successful close, the results speak volumes about Spartans’ devotion to this university.
Michigan State is making great strides in reforming processes and practices to be as safe, responsive, and worthy of your support as it can be. Even as we mutually reflect and assess, our indomitable Spartan Will carries us forward.
We see confidence in MSU reflected in this year’s record enrollment. We welcomed the university’s largest incoming undergraduate class to campus, 8,442 new students, for a total enrollment of 50,351—our second-largest ever.
Clearly, MSU continues to be highly valued by families in Michigan and beyond. The average high school grade point average for our freshmen this fall was 3.73, continuing its steady increase, and Honors College enrollment totaled 724—a record for the entering class!
It is also our most diverse class, with a record 26.3 percent who are students of color, and an all-time high 4,415 women. We also welcomed 1,590 transfer students, and between new and transfer students, nearly 80 percent are from Michigan.
Though we are excited about this record-setting class, we realize we have much work to do to continue attracting future Spartans. Institutions throughout the country are facing enrollment declines as high school graduate numbers drop. In Michigan, we project 15 percent fewer high school graduates in the next 10 years.
With another foreseen drop underway in international student enrollments throughout much of higher education, Michigan State is stepping up recruiting in other states. We are addressing out-of-state tuition costs by offering new scholarship incentives to domestic students, and have added regional admissions representatives in the Florida, Atlanta, and Ohio markets. Hats off to the alumni groups around the country that are stepping up to help represent us at recruiting events in their regions.
This challenge, too, will be overcome by Spartans working together. Go green!
John Engler
INTERIM PRESIDENT, MSU
