Belmont University’s spring enrollment growth leads all colleges in universities in the Middle Tennessee region, according to data compiled and reported by The Tennessean. Belmont’s spring semester enrollment of 3,477 students was 13.22 percent higher than the school’s spring 2003 enrollment, a growth of 406 students. That’s a far larger growth rate than second-place Trevecca Nazarene University, which added 8-0 students, a 4.48 percent growth rate for the small private school. It’s also must faster growth than Middle Tennessee State University, which added 614 students, a 3.13 percent growth rate for the large public university.
Two Middle Tennessee schools actually saw spring enrollment decreases, according to the newspaper’s calculations.
Belmont officials credit its record spring enrollment to large numbers of new mid-year graduate and undergraduate transfer students and to retaining 93 percent of freshman who enrolled in the fall.
Belmont University Provost Dan McAlexander says the high fall-to-spring retention rate positions Belmont for achieving a record high freshman-to-sophomore retention rate in the fall of 2004. “Improved retention is a clear indication of Belmont
