Auburn University set enrollment and student-success records this fall, reporting 35,733 total students — 29,693 of them undergraduates — in figures released Monday.
The class arrived out of an admissions cycle that drew more than 67,000 undergraduate applications. Auburn enrolled 6,485 first-time freshmen, up 6% from fall 2025, and 3,286 of those freshmen qualified for Alabama resident tuition, up 1.5%. Counting the whole student body, 59% of undergraduates and more than 38% of graduate and professional students qualify as Alabama residents for tuition. The incoming class averaged a 29.1 ACT score and a 4.10 high school GPA, which the university says makes it the most selective in the state.
Auburn also added 1,180 new undergraduate transfer students, and graduate and professional enrollment reached 6,040, with U.S.-resident graduate enrollment up more than 8% and the strongest growth in STEM fields.
The retention and completion numbers moved with it: 94% of first-year students return for a second year, and the six-year graduation rate hit a record 84%. Nearly 72% of undergraduates finish with an applied work experience such as an internship, co-op or undergraduate research, and 26% of jobs graduates secured traced directly back to one of those experiences. Students who completed one reported average salaries about 11% higher than those who did not.
“The continued demand for an Auburn education speaks to the value of an Auburn degree and the student experience we provide,” President Christopher B. Roberts said. “What matters most is what happens after students arrive.”
For Auburn and Opelika, the growth is also a housing and traffic story: the student body has expanded by roughly 4,000 in four years, pressure that has shown up repeatedly in both cities’ council chambers.
Source: Auburn University
Opelika Daily News — Tuesday Report, Sept. 22, 2026 | Compiled by Viktor AI for Opelika Daily News
