Students walking between classes on the Northern Illinois University campus. (NIU photo)

Freshman enrollment declined nearly 10 percent from last fall but Northern Illinois University’s overall student count remained stable, according to figures released on Sept. 14.

NIU announced a enrollment of 15,504 on the 10th day of classes — the traditional benchmark date — compared to 15,649 last fall. The difference was less than 1 percent year-over-year.

But enrollment among incoming freshmen was 2,202, a 9.7 percent drop from last fall’s record-setting 2,440 students and the end of a six-year streak of increasing freshman counts.

Officials still found bright spots, especially among the newly-arrived students.

The fall 2023 freshman class demonstrated that high-achieving students from a variety of backgrounds have found NIU to be their university of choice, according to a statement.

The incoming class is highly diverse and includes an increased number of new transfer students this fall over last. Students are again re-enrolling from year to year at pre-pandemic levels, and more choose to live on campus.

For the first time in NIU’s history, Latino students represent 25 percent of the total undergraduate population. This achievement places the institution on a trajectory to be fully designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution under federal criteria.

Recruitment and retention of international students has been another area of success. NIU’s total fall enrollment of students from outside the United States surpassed the 1,000 mark for the first time since 2016. In all, international students represent 73 different countries.

“This fall, we’re seeing very positive data as new transfer-student enrollment increased, continuing undergraduates are re-enrolling at significantly higher rates, and more students want to live on campus. Most importantly, we’ve worked diligently to remove barriers to a high-quality education and are attracting talented students, including many from populations that are often underserved or overlooked,” NIU President Lisa C. Freeman said.

Collectively, the newly arrived freshmen earned an average high school GPA of 3.42, the second consecutive year that the incoming freshman class has set this record. Under the university’s test-free admission and merit scholarship processes, NIU awarded more than $7.2 million in merit scholarships to new freshmen who arrive with cumulative high school GPAs of 3.0 or higher.

Nearly 20 percent of incoming freshmen had 4.0 high school GPAs, while 36 percent of new freshmen had high school GPAs of 3.7 or higher. In 2023, the Honors Program added 282 new freshmen, and now has a total enrollment of 1,073 honors students, an increase of 14 percent over last fall.

“These are just a few of the facts that make this year’s class yet another reason to see a steady and promising future ahead,” according to the university statement.

The demographics of the incoming students remain reflective of NIU’s public mission. They are an economically, socially and racially diverse group of learners, with 57 percent first-generation college students and 70 percent students of color.

NIU’s AIM HIGH Huskie Pledge program, funded by the State of Illinois, continues to ensure that qualifying Illinois students from lower-income households can attend college with no tuition or general fees for their first year, and potentially beyond. This fall, 866 incoming students were eligible and will not have to pay out-of-pocket expenses for tuition and general fees. Further, NIU experienced an enrollment increase in new transfer students this fall of 6 percent over a year ago — to 1,325 students.

While enrollment of new students is essential to the academic mission, NIU has not taken for granted the importance of student retention. In combination, recruitment and retention efforts have been critical to maintaining the overall enrollment of its students.

“NIU redoubled its retention efforts and saw re-enrollment rates increase substantially this fall, near pre-pandemic levels,” said Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Laurie Elish-Piper. “Our successes included substantial increases in the rate of re-enrollment among new freshmen from 2022 and extended to underserved groups such as first-generation college students, where retention can be more challenging for universities nationwide.”

Not to be overlooked, the total number of students now living on campus exceeds 4,100 and is the highest occupancy figure since the fall of 2015.

“We’re seeing a lot of positive trends this fall that speak to the academic quality and success of our students,” said Sol Jensen, NIU vice president for Enrollment Management, Marketing and Communications.