UH enrollment among freshmen, transfers, international students and out of state were all down in Fall 2020. | Sydney Rose/The Cougar
Although UH enrollment reached record numbers for the fall semester, jumping to over 47,000 students, a closer look shows that freshmen and transfer enrollment dropped amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite freshmen admission reaching 17,658, an 8.2 percent increase from last year, enrollment dropped by 7.7 percent to 5,246, admissions director Mardell Maxwell said during Thursday’s UH System Board of Regents meeting. Transfer admissions (6,697) decreased by 7.5 percent, but enrollment (4,623) dropped only slightly by 0.2 percent.
While there was 34,483 freshman with submitted applications for Fall 2020, about 7.2 percent higher than last year, only 9,449 transfer students applied as a 1.9 percent decrease from last fall.
Freshmen applications in major areas around Texas went up, with Austin (26 percent) and the Rio Grande Valley (9 percent) seeing the biggest jumps.
But application increases in these areas were offset by lower enrollment, including an 11 percent drop in Houston, 20 percent in Dallas/Fort Worth, 6 percent in Austin and a drastic 26 percent decrease in Rio Grande Valley.
Out-of-state applications increased by 19 percent, but enrollment fell by 1 percent.
UH also saw a drop in international student enrollment, down by 5 percent in Fall 2020. International student applications were also down by 2 percent.
As of Fall 2020, the total number of undergraduate students at the University was 37,689, and the number of continued undergraduates who have continued at UH through the coronavirus pandemic remains at 28,229.
For more of The Cougar’s coronavirus coverage, click here.
