The University of Maine class that starts this fall will be the biggest in the Orono school’s history.
More than 2,500 new students have put down their deposits to start this year — that’s about 50 more than last year, when the entering class was also the largest ever.
That growth comes from increasing numbers of out-of-state and international students. UMaine Provost Jeff Hecker says it comes down in part to the school’s program that matches the tuition of several states’ flagship public universities, and in part to marketing.
“We’ve sent a message out to students in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and down all the way through to New Jersey and Pennsylvania that they can get a high-quality education at an affordable price here at the University of Maine,” he says.
In-state students have dropped by about 100, which Hecker says makes the class about 50 percent in state. He says that’s good for the state, in part because demographic changes mean Maine needs younger people, and some of those who go to school in Maine will stay and work when they graduate.
As for in-state students, Hecker says more of them have enrolled at the other UMaine campuses, and at the University of Southern Maine.
