ISU fall enrollment grows by nearly 700 students

Christopher Gannon

The student section cheers on the Cyclones during their 2025 win over Iowa at Jack Trice Stadium. This fall's enrollment numbers show it was another year of overall growth, aided by a large class of new students and strong retainment from last year's new students.

by Anthony Capps, Editor

Iowa State University has recorded its largest fall enrollment in five years and its third year of consecutive growth.

Enrollment numbers for this fall semester, announced Thursday, increased by 673 students from last fall for a total of 31,105, about a 2.2% rise.

The growth is attributed to the strong retention of 89% of last year’s first-year students and a large class of new first-years.

Iowa State University’s total student enrollment for the last 20 years by student level — undergraduates, graduates and professional.

Of Iowa State’s seven colleges, six saw an increase in total enrollment. The College of Engineering remains the university’s largest with nearly 28% of the student body.

LAS: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which had a small enrollment drop this fall, is in second, with 20% of the student body. While the overall university numbers increased, the college had nine years of declining enrollment.

HHS: The College of Health and Human Sciences, renamed from the College of Human Sciences in September 2024, saw its enrollment rise this fall, which is its first increase since 2014.

Design: The College of Design, which had a consistent enrollment in the 1,900 to 2,000 range for the better part of 20 years, climbed up to 2,172 students, its largest enrollment since 1991.

Iowa State University’s fall enrollment broken down by what college the students are in during the last 20 years.

Iowa students: The number of students from Iowa also rose this year (16,111 to 16,330), following nine consecutive years of sliding. The proportion of in-state students is still declining. During the last 25 years, it dropped from 72% to 52%.

International: The number of international students dropped slightly (2,847 to 2,823) this fall. International students are 9% of the student body, which is on par with recent years.

Iowa State University’s fall enrollment for the last 20 years as measured by where students are from — Iowa, nonresident and international. The number of students from Iowa has had its ups and downs, but the overall proportion has dropped by 18%.

Other regents schools: The University of Iowa saw increased enrollment of 2.5% and kept its small enrollment lead compared to Iowa State — 31,563 versus 31,105.

The University of Northern Iowa saw a drop of less than 1% this fall to 9,204 students, which is in line with the university’s average since 2020.

All three regent universities began to see enrollment declines at the end of the 2010s that bottomed out in 2021 or 2022.