U of M faces largest freshman class in nearly 50 years

U of M file photo

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The University of Minnesota is struggling to handle the largest freshman class the university has seen in almost 50 years.
 
Minnesota Daily reports that the university enrolled almost 6,200 new freshmen this fall, in addition to almost 2,300 transfer students.
 
Bob McMaster is the university's Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education. He says the large influx of students has strained the university's school housing, financial aid and certain classes. 
 
McMaster says the university typically sets informal enrollment goals and every college exceeded their goal this year.
 
Computer science and engineering professor Nicholas Hopper says the higher enrollment has made some classes crowded.
 
McMaster says officials don't believe the large class size will impact educational quality. He says enrollment administrators will closely monitor the freshman class size in the future.