The incoming Baker University class is already making a large impression on campus as one of the largest groups to enter Baker University with 292 new students enrolled for the fall term. This figure includes 240 freshmen and 52 transfer students.

According to an email from the Admissions Department to the Baker faculty and staff , the average GPA and ACT scores of the incoming students is 3.5 and 22 respectively. These students have come from 17 states and the male/female ratio is evenly divided.

Vice President of Enrollment Danielle Yearout said she is proud and excited about the increase.

“It is something to really be proud of,” she said on Aug. 19. “I think last year we started around the 20th day about 220, so 292 is a big jump.”

Faculty can especially expect to see more students in the following areas, which are the top five majors among the incoming students: business, biology, exercise science, education and nursing.

Admissions Counselor Parker Johnson and Yearout attribute the increase to a campus-wide effort.

“We saw an increase in both the academic and athletic side, which is really exciting,” Johnson said. “Everything that our faculty has done through pipelines, connections our students made, everything they are doing out there to increase academic awareness at Baker … and the things our athletics have done on the national stage helped increase those numbers.”

Yearout agreed that athletics always does a great job of “not only recruiting students, but retaining them.”

Both Johnson and Yearout believe that Baker students also serve an important role in drawing in future students.

“It is us (the admissions staff), but it is also the students who are sharing on social media,” Yearout said. “The students are doing well, they are accomplishing and doing great things, so it is easy for us to go out and talk about the success of our students and the success of our graduates.”

Yearout believes that prospective students often look to Baker students as peers and as a reflection of the university itself.

“Nobody can tell the current Baker story like our students and our recent grads,” she said. “That is why at each visit we try to get a prospective student in front of a faculty member and several students, because the students are really what makes the difference. The people who can tell it the best are you.”

Yearout said that the goal for the upcoming year is to beat 2007’s record of 307 new students next year.

“I believe the largest class in our history was 307,” she said. “And I can tell you with great enthusiasm that we are going to do everything we can to beat that, to the extent that we have enough housing and enough services on campus that students can still be successful.”