Hundreds more students – 698 to be exact – will be walking Iowa State’s halls this semester as the overall numbers of enrollment has increased.

The admissions department has recently released that the number of admitted students at Iowa State this semester is 26,160.

“This year we have the third largest group of freshmen ever, at 4,347 students,” said Kathleen Jones, assistant vice president for records and registration.

Tom Hill, vice president for student affairs, is hopeful the numbers will continue to go up in the years to come.

“The numbers have been increasing since 2004, and we were hopeful that they would continue that trend,” Hill said.

Marc Harding, director of enrollment services, said the increased enrollment was partly because of an increase in visitors.

“One big aspect that helped is that the number of campus visitors has really gone up. We’ve had about 2,000 more visitors this year, and visitors are more likely to apply and be accepted here,” Harding said.

Another increase is seen in the transfer class, which totals 1,527, the largest in five years.

“We are also hoping that our retention rates will show improvement as well, but those will not be released until November,” Jones said.

Harding said another factor in the increase is an increased focus on recruitment from outside the state.

“Sixty-two percent of our out-of-state students come from either Illinois or Minnesota, so we have ramped up our focus on those states. We have people assigned to just the Chicago area of Illinois because almost all students from Illinois are from that area,” he said.

Hill attributes the increase in numbers to an increased interest in recruitment.

“The overall community has really focused on what it takes to recruit students, and everyone’s doing a great job,” he said.

Harding said the community is a very important representative of the university.

“When people visit here, they don’t just see the college. They shop in local stores, they eat local food, they interact. Every interaction is important, because it helps the prospective student decide if they want to go here,” he said.

The increased focus on recruitment is a result of a few external factors, the first being a trend emerging across high schools in the area.

“There are fewer graduating seniors in Iowa – actually, throughout the Midwest. The only growth in this area is in Illinois, and that’s marginal,” Harding said.

With tuition costs rising, recruitment is not an easy task.

“The number of colleges isn’t going down – no one’s closing their doors right now,” Harding said.

“Couple that with the fact that the price to attend college is going up across the nation, and we have to be competitive to recruit students. Fortunately, I think we’re doing a great job.”