Record-setting: more than 42K new students, 5% increase from last fall
Tempe, Ariz. Aug. 11, 2025 – As fall classes get underway on Thursday, Aug. 21, approximately 42,900 new first-year, transfer and graduate students will begin their journey as Sun Devils either in person or online.
A key driver of ASU’s enrollment increases is its commitment to being the preferred university of choice for Arizona residents, who account for a projected 18,000 new students – this includes first-year, graduate and transfer students only. More than 9,700 of those new students will join ASU from Arizona high schools, a 3% increase from last fall.
Barrett, the Honors College, reports a 4.7% enrollment increase from fall 2024, which is a university record. The average weighted GPA of these incoming students is 4.2.
The most popular majors for incoming first-year students include biological sciences, business, community health, computer science, mechanical engineering and psychology. These students are taking their first step in their journeys to a brighter future given that ASU is ranked #2 among public universities for employability.
ASU’s projected growth for fall 2025 is also thanks to historic demand for online degree programs. In total, more than 79,000 students are projected to be enrolled through ASU Online this fall, an 8% increase from fall 2024 online student enrollment. More than 18,800 new online students will begin their ASU journey this fall.
In a year marked with changing federal guidance for international students, ASU provided flexibility throughout the admissions process to help impacted students stay on track to enroll. As a result, ASU is poised to host a projected 14,600 international students, who contribute nearly $700 million to Arizona’s economy. ASU is committed to maintaining flexibility to allow international students pathways to continue their education without delays through study abroad or at a partner institution in our ASU–Cintana Alliance network.
“International students are economic contributors, scientific collaborators and cultural ambassadors,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “They are essential to the very goals the nation is trying to achieve — a growing economy, technological leadership and strengthened democratic alliances around the world.”
In any given year — counting unique enrollments across all sessions of fall, spring and summer — ASU enrolls more than 194,000 students including both in-person and online.
How does ASU count its students?
ASU offers multiple start dates for our students, with many of our online students joining in later sessions offered in the fall and spring semesters. True to our mission of measuring ourselves by whom we include, we have adjusted our total enrollment reporting to include all students who join us over the course of a year. In previous years, we reported the total count at the start of the fall semester, but this number increases throughout the year, thus failing to account for tens of thousands of ASU students.
(Our 194,000 students is a total of all unique students who enrolled at ASU in the past academic year: 2024-2025).
For more details, please visit ASU News.
See our list of students and spokespeople available for interviews.
ASU is changing higher education and is repeatedly ranked #1 for innovation and is a Research 1 university committed to excellence, access and impact, serving students across four Phoenix Metropolitan area campuses, online and throughout the U.S., including locations in California, Hawaiʻi and Washington, D.C.
