Tech touts incoming student class

As the first week of the semester comes to a close, you may have noticed the lecture halls in Fisher are a bit more cramped than usual. Michigan Technological University’s freshman class is the largest it has been in nearly 40 years. The group is so large, it has pulled overall enrollment up by 2.3 percent.

Making that even more impressive is that it comes at a time when the number of students going to college across the country remains in decline. Tech’s press release discusses just how big of a factor COVID was in student choices last year, saying “the global pandemic overshadowed the myriad of factors that consistently affect college choice.”

COVID affected where people want to live too, and the Keweenaw Peninsula seems to be enjoying a bit of a renaissance. A growing population will help the university, allowing it to rely a little less on major cities like Detroit or Minneapolis located at least six hours away.

The full release is here.