The total enrollment number is expected to be off by plus or minus 100 students, said Dave Byelich, assistant vice president and director of the Office of Planning and Budgets. The final numbers will be available in October.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the number of students at the university this year is stretching the ability to give everyone a good experience and is crowding entry-level classes. The goal is to take the total enrollment number down in the next few years.

“We’ll probably settle in the 48,000 range, so we’ll still be very big, but right now, we’re just a little too large,” Simon said.

There was a record number of applicants of 31,480 for the 2013-14 academic year, which is up about a thousand from this past year. About 69 percent of applicants were admitted and about 36 percent accepted the university’s offer.

“Enrollment is very encouraging,” Trustee Brian Mosallam said during Friday’s meeting. “It’s great to see there are so many that want to be Spartans.”

He added there should be a new model for predicting who will come once accepted and who won’t.

The entering class is academically strong, having a 75th percentile grade-point average of 3.87. The figure is higher than last year’s, which means the top-25 percent of students entering MSU is stronger academically than in 2012.

There are about 19 percent non-white students in the total entering class and about 16.5 percent international students.

“It appears that students in Michigan and around the world are interested in being part of the Spartan family,” Acting Provost June Youatt said.

About 71 percent of the entering class are in-state students. They make up about 79 percent of total enrollment. According to Simon, the number is high for the Big 10, which has an average of about 65 percent in-state students, and could present a problem for the university as Michigan’s high school graduate pool is expected to decline in the next few years.

Youatt said with the decline in Michigan high school graduates, MSU will challenge itself to recruit nationally and internationally.

While the number of 2013 Michigan high school graduates declined slightly, MSU got about the same number of in-state applicants, said Jim Cotter, director of the Office of Admissions.

Although the university wants to decrease total enrollment in the next few years, Cotter said he does not anticipate admittance to be significantly more difficult in the future.

“We’re interested in solid performers that can come here and be successful and make a difference in the world,” Cotter said.

On this year’s entering class, he said the indication is that the university is on target as far as class size, diversity and academic strength. He added there’s little time to celebrate the success because the admissions office already is working on recruiting the entering class of 2014.

“We have positive momentum,” he said. “There’s a tremendous demand for MSU.”