The number of incoming freshman has more than doubled since 2006, when the class was 640.

Thomas Wolff, the college’s associate dean of undergraduate studies, said this year’s class is the largest in more than a decade.

“When the economy dipped in 2008, we saw a lot of people switch to majors with a clear path to a better paying job,” he said.

Wolff also cited rising numbers of international students and the Cornerstone and Residential Experience, a living learning community for engineering freshman, as another reason for the increase.

“We talk to parents at orientation from New York or Virginia, and they say that the attraction (of MSU) is our first-year program,” he said.

The Cornerstone and Residential Experience, or CoRe, is aimed at encouraging students to collaborate on classwork.

The program is based in Wilson Hall, where many of the freshman-level classes and academic advisers are housed.

“I would like to think (our program) has a role in retaining those students,” CoRe Director S. Patrick Walton said.

“We try to get them more prepared for their later schoolwork, and making them more successful in the long haul.”

Engineering junior Pat Swiszcz said both of those aspects played a role of in attracting himself to the banks of the Red Cedar River.

“I looked at the top engineering schools in the country and MSU was up there,” Swiszcz said.

“I visited and really liked the way the professors presented themselves, and the way that the department was structured.”