Enrollment Increases 2.9%, Sets New Record at 2,677

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- A record number of students are enrolled this fall at Lindsey Wilson College, LWC College President William T. Luckey Jr. reported Friday, Oct. 26, to the Lindsey Wilson Board of Trustees.

At the trustees' annual fall meeting, Luckey reported that the 109-year-old liberal arts college has enrolled a record 2,677 students this school year. That's a 2.9 percent increase over last school year's enrollment of 2,600 students. The college's 2012-13 enrollment includes 2,217 undergraduate students and 460 graduate students.

"The major reason this is such exciting news is because more students than ever before are experiencing the mission of Lindsey Wilson College," said Luckey, who has been the college's eighth president since July 1, 1998.

The 598 new undergraduate students who enrolled this fall at LWC make up the most academically prepared freshman class in the college's history, Luckey said. They entered LWC with an average ACT score of 21.3 and an average cumulative grade point average of 3.25.

"The teachers and leaders of Kentucky high schools are doing a much better job preparing students for college," Luckey said.

A record number of students are living LWC's residence halls this year, Luckey said. A total of 1,099 students are living on campus, 47 more than the previous record, set in 2010

Since fall 2007, LWC's overall enrollment has increased by more than 47 percent.

"This phenomenal increase is a direct result of our decision to begin several new academic programs, start a marching band program and add a couple of athletic programs," Luckey said.

Also since 2007, LWC's A.P. White Campus has undergone an almost $40 million makeover that included a new science center, nursing and counseling center, health-and-wellness center, two residence halls, and a sports park that contains a baseball field, softball field and an outdoor sports stadium for football and track and field.

In the last decade, the college's full-time faculty has expanded from 58 to its current record level of 114.

"Expanding our faculty is one of our most impressive accomplishments," Luckey said. "Visitors to campus may not notice a larger faculty in the same way they notice a new three-story science center, but a larger and more accomplished faculty has been a primary reason so many of Kentucky's best and brightest students have chosen to spend their undergraduate years at Lindsey Wilson."