Missouri’s technological research university is gearing up for fall semester classes to get underway on Monday. Enrollment on the first day of classes at the University of Missouri-Rolla is expected to be 5,429, an increase of 201 students over last year’s figure of 5,228, says Laura Stoll, UMR registrar. The total enrollment is now more than 28 percent larger than that of fall 2000, when the university opened with 4,256 students.

“We are very pleased with the continued growth in student enrollment,” says UMR provost and executive vice-chancellor, Y.T. Shah. “The large number and high quality of students choosing the university indicates that UMR is a preferred choice among the nation’s finest students.”

With slightly more than 900 freshmen and close to 300 new transfer students this fall, the new student class is one of the largest since the mid 1980s. The freshmen class is made up of students from 32 states and more than 12 foreign countries. More than 60 percent of them represented the upper 20 percent of their high school graduating class. This year’s average ACT score, a measure of the quality of the freshman class, was again in the upper 10 percent in the nation.

This fall marks the grand opening of UMR’s new 256-bed Residential College, a new concept among colleges and universities to merge students’ living quarters with learning opportunities. Students enrolled in the facility will live in interactive learning communities that focus on their area of study – design, entrepreneurship, research and women as global leaders. As part of their respective learning community, students will participate in special study programs with UMR faculty members.

The total enrollment will likely be over 5,500 once students finish enrolling in fall classes. “We will continue to enroll students through the first few weeks of the fall semester,” says Jay Goff, UMR dean of enrollment management. “We expect to gain around 100 students by the end of registration.”

The official fall semester enrollment numbers will be released after the fourth week of classes. UMR classes begin Monday, Aug. 22.