Fall 2018 Purdue's record freshmen class way bigger than campus expected

Purdue is scrambling to hire additional faculty, advisers and teaching assistants after being greeting by enrollment projections of 8,300 new students – 500 more than expected – for the 2018-19 school year.

That would be the largest freshmen class in Purdue history.

In fall 2017, Purdue had 7,567 freshmen – which had been considered one of the largest classes for the university, but fewer than the 7,800 freshmen President Mitch Daniels said the university was aiming to get for the coming year. For a comparison, in 2013, Purdue had 6,330 freshmen.

For the first time, a surprise of this dimension has occurred, at least in recent memory,” Daniels said. “Nationwide, the interest in a Purdue education has surged even beyond the increase our historically accurate predictive models had forecasted."