MC reports fall enrollment, notes retention increase

By Cara Pridemore

A view of the pedestrian street, where hundreds of new and returning students pass through daily.

New undergraduate student enrollment for Fall 2025 at Mississippi College has declined compared to fall 2024.

Michael Wright, MC’s dean of enrollment management, points to two major factors that affect the university’s student count: the “enrollment cliff” and changes to the Speed Scholarship Program.

The enrollment cliff refers to a predictable decline in university enrollment resulting from demographic shifts. There were fewer high school graduates to recruit due to low birth rates eighteen years ago. For MC, the decline in high school graduates is most clearly seen in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee.

“Birth rates are on the increase again, but for the next seven years, we’re in this dip before it comes back up,” Wright said.

Changes to the Speed Scholarship Program also had an impact on student enrollment.

In fall 2023 and fall 2024, the Speed Scholarship Program provided a full-tuition scholarship for Mississippi residents.

“That is going to be unsustainable for the next two hundred years,” Wright said. “In order to make it more sustainable, we had to dial down what the program was going to pay for.”

This year, to ensure the longevity of the Speed program, the scholarship only covered remaining tuition after state and federal aid was applied. Since the launch of the Speed Scholarship program in 2023, MC’s enrollment has grown significantly. To account for this, the university has prepared the necessary resources to support similarly-sized classes.Within the past few years, the Ratliff, Hederman and Gunter dormitories have been renovated to accommodate new students. The dorms are at 94% capacity, housing 1,830 students. This is a percentage that school officials say is ideal and allows flexibility.

According to the admissions office, MC received 438 freshmen and 192 transfers, for a total of 630 new undergraduate students for the fall semester. This number falls shy of the spring projection of 750 new enrollments. With the addition of this new class, there are 2,582 undergraduate students – 1,593 females and 1,043 males.

For the first time since 2020, the number of new graduate students has increased at MC, with 353 new students enrolled for the fall semester, totaling 1,404 graduate students.
“We have roughly 100 less freshmen year over year,” Wright said. “This slight decline, however, is not unexpected.”

Additionally, the dissolution of MC’s football program accounts for lower student enrollment. Wright explained that the football program brought in around 40 new freshmen and transfer students each year. With the discontinuation of the program in fall 2025, MC now has fewer athletes and, therefore, fewer students.

As the university prepares to celebrate its bicentennial, university officials say that attracting a strong incoming class and ensuring MC’s sustainability for the next two hundred years is crucial. The admissions office is focused on recruiting students who not only thrive academically but also embrace MC’s Christ-centered mission. As of August 26, the total student count is nearly 4,000. Additionally, there are 246 high school students in MC’s dual enrollment program.

Year over year, MC has seen an increase in the academic quality of incoming students. The average ACT score for incoming students is 26, compared to 25 in fall 2024. This is the highest ACT score for incoming MC students in the last ten years, and university leadership says it speaks to the academic caliber of new students.

Each undergraduate school saw steady numbers. The School of Christian Studies, Humanities, and the Arts is the university’s largest, with 552 students, followed by the School of Education (536), the School of Science and Mathematics (451), the School of Business (380), and the School of Nursing (335). Eighty-two students went undeclared.

While MC is content with its enrollment numbers, Wright shared some ambitious goals to diversify the student body.

“We would love to have roughly forty to forty-five percent of our incoming class from out-of-state,” he said. “We want to be as diverse as possible in all the senses of diversity, from where people are from, to socioeconomics, to test scores, to GPAs, to interests.”

Currently, MC has an approximate sixty-eight to thirty-two in-state to out-of-state ratio. To balance this ratio, Wright plans to more strategically recruit from specific “ponds” of families who are willing to invest in Christian higher education.

“We need people from out-of-state that value what we’re doing, that want to be here and that see this place as the next step toward developing the next generation of Christian leaders,” said Wright.

In the past few years, MC has seen success with increasing retention rates. Two years ago, the first-to-second-year retention rate was 76%; this year, it has climbed to 78%.

“We’ve got the full depth and breadth of a rocking university,” said Wright. “And we’re committed to being focused on the Lord and making sure that when you get out of here, you’re ready to go change the world for Christ in your chosen field.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Used with permission of Blue & Gold Media at Mississippi College.