Next time you’re taking a walk around campus, take a look at the faces around you. You should be seeing some familiar faces, as USAO’s retention rate is up this year, according to Joe Evans, registrar and director of enrollment and records.

“Retention rate of first time freshmen is 88%, which means our freshmen have been very successful,” said Evans.

Following that trend, the number of transfer students has increased by 4.8%, international students by 31.8% and first time freshmen by 14.3%, compared with last spring.

Although USAO’s retention rate is up, the overall enrollment numbers are down just slightly compared to last spring.

“We measure enrollment two different ways. One is by our headcount, which is currently 830 students compared with last spring’s 843, a 1.5% decrease,” Evans said.

“The second way is FTE, or full time equivalent, when we take the number of credit hours all students are enrolled in and divide by 15 because that’s the standard credit hour load that’s used for the Oklahoma State Regents.”Last spring USAO’s FTE was 760. This year it’s down by 17, coming in at 743.

“There are certainly some very positive trends when you look at all the different characteristics that we try to look at,” said Evans.