New student enrollment expected to drop
International, freshmen numbers on decline; retention could help mitigate
An agenda for The Board of Trustees sits in the lap of an attendee, Tuesday, Feb. 6, in the Bovee University Center. (CM-Life | Nico Mendoza | file)
Fewer new students are expected to be taking seats at Central Michigan University in fall 2025, compared to the previous year.
Vice President of Student Recruitment and Retention Jennifer DeHaemers told the Board of Trustees' Academic and Student Affairs Committee Wednesday that the university is seeing decreases in a variety of indicators – including deposits, orientatQervations and enrollment itself.
“We have been seeing some challenges among our first-time college students,” DeHaemers said. Those include both traditional college freshmen and non-traditional students who are entering college for the first time.
“We see the same trend, although it’s not quite as large, with our main campus transfer students," she continued. "And then international students are mostly enrolling at the graduate level, and we expect that enrollment to be down … this year due to some uncertainties around visa processing and visa cancellations.”
The decline follows summer enrollment numbers that are down about 2.3 percent, compared to 2024.
The most dramatic drop comes in international student enrollment. Documentation presented to the board shows a nearly 65% decline – or 241 – in new student visas for the coming academic year.
“We have 131 students who have gotten visas, as compared to 372 at this time last year,” DeHaemers said. “I think you can see the impact (of) … pausing visa appointments for basically a month from the end of May until roughly the end of June. Those appointments have resumed, but we don’t know with what frequency and how many they will be scheduling.”
The State Department announced June 18 it is stepping up screenings before issuing visas, to include, among other things, “a comprehensive and thorough vetting, including online presence, of all student and exchange visitor applicants.”
“Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the department wrote in a statement. “The United States must be vigilant during the visa issuance process to ensure that those applying for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests, and that all applicants credibly establish their eligibility for the visa sought, including that they intend to engage in activities consistent with the terms for their admission.”
DeHaemers said the university is anticipating between 200 and 225 new international scholars in the coming year. International enrollment has played a major role in the university’s head count, recently. In 2022, CMU saw a 227% jump in international student numbers, and the tables have only ticked upward, hitting a 10-year high of 1,726 in fall 2023, according to university enrollment data.
“Long story short, we’re keeping an eye on this and don’t expect to have the enrollment that we’ve had for the last three years with those large increases,” DeHaemers said.
Social, economic and political challenges have also contributed to changing attitudes toward higher education. All told, Academic Planning and Analysis estimates overall enrollment for fall 2025 to be down about 225 students, give or take 80, DeHaemers said.
“Part of the plus-or-minus depends on external forces, but also some of the internal things that we’re doing,” she said.
Those initiatives include the introduction of the CMU Edge Award, which provides up to $2,500 financial support for students who fall just shy of the existing Merit aid award. It is reserved for new freshmen whose high school GPA of 2.8 to 2.99 qualifies them for automatic admission, but fall shy of the 3.0 mark required for Merit recognition.
“We know these students can positively impact the university and their own communities,” DeHaemers said.
The hope is that the Edge recognition will draw in about 120 new freshmen who might not otherwise attend. DeHaemers said the funding has been diverted from existing, unused scholarship dollars.
“We’re just using money we’ve already been allocated to provide this new award to students,” she said.
Additionally, DeHaemers said, the university is looking for ways to work with international students whose visas may be delayed. Some of the plans currently in the works include waiving the existing $45 deferral fee, should students choose to hold off on attending until the spring semester; and offering online enrollment for the fall to accommodate later arrivals.
