Enrollment numbers continue to climb

Students explore Liberty’s campus.

New students attend their first convocation service on Thursday.

Record-breaking enrollment is expected at Liberty University this semester.

Final numbers cannot be confirmed at this time, but Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. anticipates enrollment to stand somewhere between 11,500 and 12,000 on-campus students.

Officials originally projected that 11,500 students would attend this fall, but hundreds more completed Financial Check-In past the deadline. Financial Check-In is Liberty’s term for completing payment arrangements and confirming attendance for the semester.

About 400 students are in the group that checked in past the deadline. Falwell said LU will strive to accept approximately 200 of those students, giving preference to those who possess an exemplary academic record. Classes for the Fall 2009 semester begin on Monday, Aug. 24.

“We really are experiencing incredible enrollment numbers,” Falwell said. “Because they checked in late, they’re not guaranteed a spot. We are going the extra mile by trying to accommodate the 200 with the best academic records in the group.”

The campus residence halls are currently full, he said, so these extra students would need different living accommodations.

Liberty University isn’t alone in its record enrollment. Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary is welcoming its largest incoming class in LBTS history – 172 new students and 30 who are returning after an absence of a semester or year, making a grand total of 202 new incoming students.

LBTS President Ergun Caner said this incoming class is almost larger than the total number of new and returning students in LBTS combined when he started in 2005. The seminary had a total of 220 resident students that year – and Caner hopes to have more than 600 total resident students this school year.