Despite times of economic hardship, this year’s enrollment is larger than past years with 11,770 graduate and undergraduate students compared to 11,328 last year.  

The undergraduate population this year stands at 5,376 students, just surpassing last year’s 5,324 students, according to Jim Berscheidt, associate vice chancellor of university communications.

The graduate enrollment is also up this year at 6,394 from last year’s 6,004 students.

According to Chancellor Robert Coombe in his Convocation address on Oct. 2, the “realignment” last year is one way that DU is helping students. By reducing staff by 122 positions, $12 million dollars were saved. More than $4.5 million of these funds went to increase financial aid for students.

Around $4 million also went to controlling expenses, which led to the smallest percentage of tuition increases in a decade this year.

“[The chancellor] didn’t want leaving school to be the first option. Rather, the chancellor wanted families to know that help was available,” said Berscheidt. 

Though the student population this year is larger than previous years, this is not the university’s goal.

Berscheidt said, “We don’t want to grow significantly, we want to keep the student/faculty ratio. We want to continue the personal relationships between students and their professors.”

Recently the number of inquiries, applications and campus visits have grown.

“This is leading us to be more selective and accept better students, whereas other universities may take them,” said Berscheidt.

According to Coombe, almost half of this year’s first-year class was in the top ten percent of their class.

According the Berscheidt, DU’s reputation is growing nationally and internationally. He believes that this is due in part to DU’s appearance on the US News and World Report’s list of up-and-coming schools. DU tied for eighth place on this list.

“This is a compliment for our university and recognizes that our increasing strength in academics is being noticed,” said Berscheidt.