As of fall quarter, La Sierra University experienced a 26% surge in new freshmen for the 2025-2026 school year, a 38% increase in new graduate students, and a 24% increase in total new students, ending several years of enrollment losses.

The university’s enrollment totaled 1,602 as of October 1, 2025, its official census date, representing an overall enrollment increase of 5%. The higher figure includes a drop this fall in transfer students of 14%. The enrollment surge put the university on track to meet its budgetary expectations. 

“We are thrilled by the highly encouraging increase in our enrollment numbers,” said La Sierra University President Christon Arthur. “Our dedicated university team answered the call and worked hard to move the needle. New processes were adopted to increase enrollment, and strategic investments were made in key areas, particularly enrollment services and marketing. 

The positive results support these investments as vital to our turnaround and continued growth. With these foundational improvements in place and our team committed to our unified cause, we look forward with excitement to additional gains and opportunities to help even larger numbers of students achieve their God-given potential.”

The university beat the statistical odds over the past school year as it implemented new processes, added resources, and launched initiatives tightly focused on boosting enrollment. According to Karina Kowarsch, La Sierra’s director of institutional research, the prospects of achieving more than 1,523 students enrolled this fall held a probability of only five percent, based on an annual statistical model the department generates.

As of the census last fall, the university welcomed 294 new freshmen to campus compared to 234 in the fall of 2024. New graduate students this fall totaled 124 as of October 1, compared to 90 last year. Transfer students totaled 129 this yea,r compared to 150 last year.

Additionally, of La Sierra University’s more than 80 major degree programs, 13 experienced growth this fall. For example, biology experienced a 13% increase, digital media a 33% uptick, educational leadership a jump of 106%, history and political science, 29%, physics, a spike of 133%, mathematics, 50%, and social ecology, a 400% increase.

The university has set a preliminary long-term target of 3,000 total enrollment by 2035.

Seventh-day Adventist universities and colleges around the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) also experienced varying increases last fall. The Association of Adventist Colleges and Universities announced during NAD year-end meetings, cumulative enrollment gains for its 13  campuses.

La Sierra has taken numerous actions over the past several months toward spurring growth. In September, the university hired a new vice president of strategic enrollment management along with four staff members. This action follows increased investments in marketing and recruitment last school year which included new technology that enhances responsivity to potential students, and the addition of staffing and social and digital media initiatives in marketing. 

The university also early last school year shifted the opening of its annual fall enrollment period by two months to coincide with the fall enrollment periods of other schools. It also embarked on a new initiative involving partnerships with regional school districts and academies toward boosting enrollment.

“Our campus family is moving forward with excitement into a school year that is full of promise,” Arthur said. “As we fulfill our mission to shepherd our students, our bright stars, into their fullest potential, as we follow God’s leading in this endeavor and put his mission first, we will be successful as an institution. We are a family whose doors are open, where there is room at the table for all who want to come home.”

The original article was published on the North American Division news site.