There are about 264 more students walking MSU's campus this year.

In a preliminary enrollment report presented at Friday's MSU Board of Trustees meeting, expected enrollment has increased from 44,836 to about 45,100.

"It is striking that MSU continues to be such an appealing destination for students," Provost Kim Wilcox said.

Wilcox presented the enrollment numbers to the board, commenting on how a greater number of incoming students accepted the offer of admission this year.

The report also showed that part of the increase is due to a higher number of graduate students coming to MSU.

"A master's degree is becoming more and more the norm for a really good career, particularly in a knowledge economy," said Karen Klomparens, dean of The Graduate School. "There is some increase in doctoral students. (The) faculty is interested in getting more doctoral students."

In the graduate program, faculty members seek out students they are interested in having in the program. Klomparens said there will be conversations with the deans and chairs of the departments to determine how many students will be accepted in the future, and they will discuss if the increasing trend is likely to continue.

"It is a positive thing," Klomparens said. "Graduate students are wonderful members of the MSU community. They help enrich research capabilities in the university."

Another reason why preliminary enrollment numbers are high is due to the large freshman class and even larger sophomore class, said Director of Admissions Pam Horne. She added that the numbers presented to the board reflect last year's freshman class, which was unusually large.

While 600 fewer students were admitted this fall, a larger proportion of admitted students came to MSU compared with last year.

"Part of that is that high school students are shopping earlier and visiting campuses before they apply," Horne said. "By the time they apply and are admitted, they are serious about MSU."

Each year, the Office of Admission and Scholarships works with the rest of the university to determine the size of the incoming freshman class, said Horne.

"Our goal is to recruit the most diverse and outstanding class we can," she said.

Even with the additional number of students at MSU, "the university has been able to absorb the larger classes in 2004 and 2005," Horne said. "We have pretty good size capacity."

Laura Collins can be reached at colli313@msu.edu.