San Diego State University announces record-breaking fall enrollment

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- San Diego State University announced record-breaking enrollment numbers at the start of the new academic year.

Combined enrollment between SDSU's main campus and SDSU Imperial Valley has reached 41,184 students this fall, the university said in a news release on Wednesday. It reflects a nearly 5% increase from last year's total enrollment.

Nearly 7,000 were first-year students, surpassing the record of 6,629 set last year, SDSU added. They were chosen from more than 95,000 first-year applicants, another record-setting number for the university.

Across both its campuses, SDSU considered applications from more than 120,000 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students, with a notable rise in students seeking to advance their education beyond obtaining a bachelor's degree.

Data from the California State University system's Graduation Initiative -- its 10-year plan to increase graduation rates -- shows that the four-year graduation rate at SDSU for full-time, first-time freshmen went up from 49% for the fall 2015 cohort to 62.2% for the fall 2021 cohort.

SDSU placed second only to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo at 63%.

More information about SDSU and SDSU Imperial Valley students can be found on the university's graduation and progress data tables here.