Bethany Lutheran College’s Fall 2021 enrollment is at an all-time high mark. Exactly 800 students are taking classes from Bethany. The College released the figures after the 10th day of classes on Wednesday, September 8. This exciting news comes on the heels of last fall’s record enrollment of 778 students.

Included among the 800 students are undergraduate (660), graduate (15), high school students enrolled at Bethany through Minnesota’s Post-Secondary Enrollment Option (PSEO) or through an online partnership with schools both locally and throughout the nation (119), and a small number of non-degree seeking students (6).

Notable among the enrollment figures is the 2021 first-year class of 228 students. This represents a record number of new students at Bethany. The 660 undergraduate students is also an all-time high. Another widely-used enrollment figure for colleges and universities is the full-time-equivalency (FTE) statistic. This number is used as a key metric for institutional reporting. Bethany’s FTE number stands at 710, another record.

As a result of the enrollment growth, Bethany is also experiencing the highest number of students living on campus in the school’s history. There are 422 students living in college housing.

President Gene Pfeifer said about the enrollment records, “These excellent enrollment figures are welcome news. We’re very thankful for our continued growth, even as the recruitment climate remains challenging. We continue to focus our efforts on serving the needs of our students well, and on establishing new, attractive programs of interest for prospective students. Those efforts are proving to be a catalyst for growth. These numbers move us closer to realizing our enrollment objectives for coming years.”