Students enrolled at MTSU today represent the future workforce for the regional economy.
MTSU produces more graduates than any other local university (approximately 5,000 each year). One in every six college-educated individuals in the greater Nashville area holds an MTSU degree.
We continue to work extremely hard to ensure that we are attracting the best and the brightest new undergraduate students from across the state of Tennessee and the region. Our recruitment team, MT One Stop, advising staff, academic department chairs, deans, and faculty work very hard all year round to deliver results.
2025, however, is the year we in higher education have been warned would come. We have arrived at the promised “enrollment cliff.”
The “enrollment cliff” refers to a projected 15% decline in U.S. college students between 2025 and 2029. This is due to a drop in birth rates following the 2008 recession, which will lead to fewer traditional college-age students.
I am pleased to be able to tell you that projections show our state in a better position than most. While the number of high school graduates in Tennessee is expected to decline in the coming years, it will do so far less than the national average.
There is even better news for MTSU. Our office of Institutional Effectiveness, Planning, and Research took a deeper look at the numbers and concluded that the Tennessee counties from which MTSU draws most of our students will in fact show a small increase in high school graduates.
As a result, we have committed to a renewed emphasis on recruiting in our own backyard. Our annual True Blue Tour, which launches again this fall, is a time when Provost Mark Byrnes, admissions recruiters, advisors, other staff, and I travel to cities across the region to recruit future Blue Raiders for 2026 and beyond. It’s a chance for prospective students and their parents to meet and talk with representatives from practically every department at MTSU right in their own hometown.
With the enrollment cliff in mind, we will continue to hold two tour stops in Nashville, as well as in Shelbyville and Wilson County. But this year, for the first time, we will host True Blue Tour stops in Gallatin and in Cookeville as well.
Although our official headcounts won’t be available for a couple of weeks, early numbers indicate that we will be up in first-time freshmen for the third consecutive year. As of Aug. 1, we were showing an increase of more than 4% in new freshmen.
This is a feat that took the collaborative efforts of the entire campus. I’d like to extend my thanks again to our undergraduate recruitment team, MT One Stop, advising staff, academic department chairs, deans, and faculty.
Not resting on their laurels, members of the recruitment staff are already out in the high schools working with the incoming class for fall 2026!
Because of all of you, when I get a chance to personally meet these prospective students, I am confident in telling them that if they come to MTSU, they will get the attention of faculty and staff that they will need to be successful in college.
