UM Continues Enrollment Growth, Welcomes Largest First-Year Class in 12 Years

MISSOULA – The University of Montana enrolled 11,319 students this fall, marking the highest student headcount for the flagship campus since 2017.

The significantly larger first-year class that arrived on campus this fall drove the growth. More than 1,500 first-time entering freshmen enrolled at UM this fall semester. This is the largest first-year class enrolled at UM in a dozen years.

“More students are choosing the University of Montana, and more students are choosing to stay. That’s the most encouraging part of these numbers,” UM President Jeremiah Shinn said. “Our job now is to help more students discover what they’re capable of becoming – and to be sure the University of Montana remains a place where students from Montana and beyond can build a future. We have momentum, and our responsibility now is to build on it.”

UM set a new student retention rate record this fall at 77.4%. This rate measures the proportion of students who persist between their first and second year at the University.

UM also increased graduate student enrollment to 2,937 students, and Missoula College enrollment grew to 1,726 students. Both figures represent an increase from fall 2025.

The growth at Missoula College – UM’s embedded two-year college – was driven by a large increase in dual enrollment from area high schools. More than 660 Montana high school students are taking college courses at Missoula College this fall, the highest ever recorded for a fall semester.  

Between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, UM educated and trained 12,289 additional individuals through noncredit courses and workforce training initiatives. While these figures have historically not counted toward UM’s census enrollment figures, it illustrates the growing demand the University serves in providing short-term courses designed to help Montanans reskill, upskill and change careers to respond to the economic needs of the state.

“Whether we’re serving a high school student taking their first college course or a Montanan coming back to school to change careers, our job is to create opportunity,” Shinn said. “We don’t just award degrees. We help people build better lives, and we help Montana build a stronger future.”

In total, 69.3% of all UM students are Montana residents. Other data points found in the fall 2026 census include:

• 3,616 UM students are first-generation college students. This figure represents the fact that nearly one in three UM students are the first in their family to attend college. 
  
  
• More than 2,400 UM students are eligible for federal Pell Grants. Students eligible for Pell Grants come from families who earn significantly less money than the state’s median wage and make up 31% of UM’s total undergraduate student enrollment.
  
  
• UM’s Alexander Blewett III School of Law welcomed 98 students in its first-year class, bringing the total number of law school students at UM to 274.

UM’s fall 2026 census report is available online.

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Contact: Dave Kuntz, UM vice president of marketing and communications, 406-243-  5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu.