Belmont Announces Highest-Ever Enrollment

Graphic showing yearly enrollment from employee-wide event in the Curb Event Center. Photo taken by Nick Rampe.

There are more Bruins than ever before.

Belmont announced that 8,932 students are currently enrolled at the university for the fall 2025 semester, its highest mark ever.

“I think a big sign of success is growth,” said CJ Clayton, a junior. “I do want the school to be successful, especially as I’m going here.”

The number surpasses Belmont’s previous highest enrollment total from fall 2022 by 22 students and surpasses the fall 2024 total by 129 students. There has been an increase of 1,209 students in the last decade.

“Both my parents were here… 20 years ago, they said most of this was not here. Their experience was good, but the campus was different,” said Hank Parsley, a freshman. “I think that Belmont has a lot of room to grow. It has the capacity to help people find a good spot for college.”

The university itself also sees the growth of the student body as a sign of success.

“The way I would characterize this is, these are uncommon results in a very unsettling time,” said Chris Gage, vice president for enrollment services during a campus-wide employee event on Monday. “Belmont is just in this very unique position within the market in the South with extremely diverse academic programs that students are interested in, and that allows us to achieve these kinds of results.”

Gage cited Belmont’s decreased discount rates, changes to FAFSA and other external factors as reasons behind the university’s enrollment decline in the previous two years.

“It’s been great to see that we’ve got strong enrollment amidst significant headwinds, that we have such great recognition of the culture that exists here amidst a chaotic time in our culture and in higher education,” said Belmont President Greg Jones.

Despite college enrollment declining across America, especially with international students, Belmont has found a way to grow.

“This was our largest international class that we’ve ever had at the university, and I can’t forget about the transfer students we’ve had. It’s now three consecutive years of growth with our transfer students, and almost 400 transfer students came to Belmont this year,” said Gage.

The number of international students remains relatively small, despite an approximate 50% increase in international students, Gage said. He described bringing in more international students as “a collaborative effort across the entire university.”

Heading into the fall 2024 semester, Belmont was unsure if it would be able to house all students that wanted to live on campus. However, with recently added housing, this should not be an issue in the coming years despite the university’s growth.

“Bringing Betty Wiseman Hall online certainly helped alleviate a lot of those challenges that we’ve had in recent years, and we actually still have a little bit of capacity for on-campus housing for students… I think our upper capacity now is maybe 5,100 students,” said Gage.

Students living in Wiseman Hall have appreciated the living space and the additions of Betty’s Market and Bear Necessities, two convenience stores located in the building, said Clayton.

Despite the growth of the university in recent years, it is likely that the acceptance rate will decline in the coming years.

“I do see us continue to maybe inch that down a little bit, just as more interest comes into Belmont and applications grow, then we want to make sure that we’re admitting the best fit students to the university,” said Gage.

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This article was written by Nick Rampe