Meet the Class of 2019

This fall, UW–Madison welcomed 6,270 new freshmen, with 3,617 coming from Wisconsin.

Total enrollment for fall 2015 at UW–Madison is 43,405, up slightly from 43,189 in 2014. Undergraduate enrollment is also up slightly in 2015, increasing from 29,304 last year to 29,583. 

African-American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian and southeast Asian-American students make up 10 percent of the 2015 freshman class. The new class includes 15.4 percent first-generation college students.

New students came to UW–Madison from each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. UW­–Madison students enrolled this year hail from 123 countries and all 50 states.

The current Board of Regents policy requires UW–Madison to maintain a nonresident undergraduate enrollment share (with Wisconsin and Minnesota students both counted as in-state due to tuition reciprocity) of no more than 27.5 percent based on a three-year rolling average. Including enrollment for fall 2015, based on this measure 27.2 percent of UW–Madison’s enrollment is nonresident.

The campus welcomed 1,269 new transfer students this fall, the largest number since 2011. The majority of these students transferred from Wisconsin institutions, including 27 percent (345 students) from UW four-year institutions, 19 percent (241 students, 224 from Madison College) from Wisconsin technical colleges, 14 percent (174 students) from UW two-year colleges, and 3 percent (42 students) from private Wisconsin universities and colleges. Thirteen percent, or 162, of these transfer students were Wisconsin residents transferring “back to Wisconsin” from institutions out of state.