Milligan University’s enrollment has been increasing steadily over the past three years, with a large percentage of students being athletes.
For fall 2024, there are 1,238 students enrolled at Milligan, according to Stacy Dahlman, head of Milligan’s Registrar’s office. That total includes 865 undergraduate students, 371graduate students, and three in the Adult Degree Completion Program(ADCP). Of the undergraduate students, 199 are freshmen.
Compared to the previous two years, Milligan has seen a steady increase in enrollment, with 1,105 students in fall 2022 and 1,219 students in fall 2023.
In 2022, there were 735 undergraduate students, 350 graduate students, and 20 in the ADCP. Of the undergraduate students 167 were freshmen.
In 2023, there were 843 undergraduate students, 364 graduate students, and 12 in the ADCP. Of the undergraduate students, 211 were freshmen.
Over the ‘22 and ‘23 years, there were a fairly even number of males to females, with there being only 60 more females than males on average.
According to this data, Milligan’s number of students enrolled each year has an upward trend, even with the freshman class recently being inconsistent with its growth.
One of the areas that makes this growth apparent is in athletics, with a growth of about 50 athletes each year.
This academic year there are 656 student athletes attending Milligan, which is the largest number in Milligan history.
Compared to the ‘22 academic year, which saw 528 student athletes, and the ‘23 academic year, with 600 student athletes, there has been a steady growth of about 64 student athletes each year.
In ‘22 student athletes made up roughly 47% of the student population, and in ‘23 it was roughly 49%.
This year, roughly 53% of the student body is made up of athletes.
This steady growth in Milligan’s athletic programs is proving that Milligan is an increasingly athletic university.
The athletic teams that have seen some of the most growth are the baseball team, disc golf team, and soccer teams.
According to Andrei Beal, a pitcher for Milligan Baseball, “We have around 75 guys, but we have over 30 new guys on the team.”
The team had 71 athletes on the roster in 2023-2024, so there hasn’t been much of an increase from last year, however Milligan athletics haven’t published the full baseball roster for this year as of this article.
Milligan’s disc golf team has had roughly a 30 percent increase in players compared to last year, signing eight new players. A total of 23 members are on this year’s team, compared to 17 members for the ‘23 season.
Men’s soccer went from 47 athletes for the ‘23 season to 53 for this year. Women’s soccer went from 37 athletes in the ‘23 season to 49 for this year.
Enrollment Statistics Provided by Stacy Dahlman, Associate Dean for Academic Administration and Registrar
Picture by Aaron Walker
by Aaron Walker