ACU hit record total institutional enrollment for the fourth consecutive year, buoyed by growth in the number of students enrolled at ACU Dallas.

Total enrollment is 5,334 students, 3,554 of which are students enrolled on the Abilene campus, according to the email sent Wednesday by Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university. 

Of the entering 872 freshmen students, 834 are enrolled in Abilene and 38 are enrolled in Dallas. That’s a small decrease with 839 freshmen having enrolled on campus last fall. According to the email, the freshman class held an average GPA of 3.54 and represented a 30% increase in out-of-state and international students. 

Tamara Long, vice president for enrollment and student life, said despite the pandemic ACU was able to bring in a slightly higher number of freshmen this year. 

“This year we are just slightly ahead of last year, not lower than,” Long said. “I was projecting 825 back in the spring.”

The target freshman class size has been 900 students, which has taken a dip the past two years due to COVID-19. 

“I believe our two-year miss in enrollment is a result of the pandemic, a blip on the radar so to speak,” Long said. “I would say that our location alone and being in a pandemic, it’s probably pretty impressive we pulled in over 800 [freshmen] students.”

This semester also has the university sitting at 42.7% diversity rate; the diversity rate in campus shot up from 20% to 40% a few years ago and has been hovering there since. 

“Our ethnic diversity has been hovering at the 40% range for about five years so we’ve really stabilized there,” Long said. “That was intentional; There was a plan and we desire that of our campus. We want to maintain that diversity and we continue to.” 

Overall, the university is cautiously optimistic moving forward. 

“We’re very excited about those numbers,” Long said. “I think there’s a lot to celebrate and on the horizon I’m feeling really cautiously optimistic about where we’re headed.”