UNH sees 4% first-year enrollment spike despite 'demographic cliff'
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Anonymous
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https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026-05-13/unh-u-newhampshire-enrollment-up-demographic-cliff
"The incoming class has an average high school grade point average of 3.70, the highest for any first-year class in UNH’s history, according to the school. UNH's Hamel Honors and Scholars College will welcome 322 first-year students, a 20% year-over-year increase." |
Anonymous
| Demographic cliff is phasing in. And it will have almost zero impact on bigger, better schools. It just means that there are not enough kids to go around for schools at the bottom of the food chain. Not applicable here. |
Anonymous
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The seniors this year are the peak of the demographic cliff.
It drops off next admissions cycle. |
Anonymous
Incorrect. 1/2 of the class of 2026 was born in 2008, which is the first year in the demographic cliff. |
Anonymous
| Not every college is going to fade away and die because of a shrinking College age population. Some will transition to senior citizen villages as the population ages. |
Anonymous
| The contrast with UVM is telling. Win for Red State governance. |
Anonymous
I'm a UNH fan but whatever they did to increase numbers (and I'm suspecting it was increasing Honors College enrollment) was done despite NOT because of the state legislature. Lowest state funding. State legislature is full of nutcases (seriously read up on it). Their focus has been on disenfranschising college students as well as allowing them open carry, not on providing a high quality flagship. |
Anonymous
| You do have to wonder what the differences are between UVM and UNH. I’ve always heard about kids going to UVM (and even know a few) but not as much about UNH. |
Anonymous
A lot of kids in NE apply to both. They are similar in size but the vibe is different. Mountains vs seacoast. UNH students have pretty good access to skiing but not nearly as many good nearby options as UVM. UVM's student body is more geographically diverse. UVM is in a (SMALL) city with more to walk to while UNH is in a very small town with a cute but tiny tiny commercial district (tbf, its not far from Portsmouth though which is a great small city). |
Anonymous
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UNH for decades has had a communications equipment testing lab. They feed lots of undergrads into testing jobs in Silicon Valley.
They also have a big dairy focus to their Ag college, in a dairy state. UNH also draws students from VT, ME, and MA. |
Anonymous
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Please always look behind the click bait marketing headlines.
Univ of New Hampshire Enrollment Numbers, Freshman, Full time 2026 2,471 freshman 2025 2,302 freshman 2024 2,605 freshman 2023 2,607 freshman 2022 2,942 freshman 2021 2,795 freshman 2020 2,630 freshman 2019 2,731 freshman |
Anonymous
This guy again. |
Anonymous
| Vermont has a GOP governor. |
Anonymous
Haven’t dug into data to confirm, but my guess is birth rates changed *during* 2008. Since pregnancy is 9 months and class of 2026 is kids born in the first half of 2008, class of 2027 is where you will really start to see the impact. |
Anonymous
UNH struggles again: another year under 2500 confirms decade-long decline!! |