Western sees largest freshman class in school history; first generation, transfer numbers still dwindle
By Liz McLane | October 14Data released last week revealed that the incoming class of first-year students at Western Washington University is indeed the largest cohort the school has seen in its 129-year history. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness, which provides yearly student demographic and enrollment data, reported that the new freshman class is composed of a total of 3,225 students, which exceeds pre-pandemic numbers. That’s up 3.5% since the fall of 2019, when the last set of enrollment data before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was released. This jump in enrollment comes after two years of decline at Western, following a trend that public four-year schools across the country saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.