UW–Platteville has once again shown the greatest percentage enrollment increase in the UW System.
According to the official tally, at UW–Platteville 8,621 students enrolled this year, including 7,819 undergraduate students and 802 graduate students — record enrollment for UW–Platteville. During the 2011–12 academic year UWP had 7,459 undergraduate students and 756 graduate students enrolled.
Overall, UWP has 406 more students enrolled ]this year, an increase of 4.9 percent from last year. The number of undergraduates increased 4.8 percent, while the number of graduate students increased by 6.1 percent from last year.
“As we suspected, these official numbers indicate a continued and growing desire by students to gain a high quality education here at UW–Platteville,” said UW–Platteville Chancellor Dennis J. Shields. “They recognize the benefits of a higher education and the types of skills they can learn here, which will serve them well in the years ahead.”
The enrollment statistics do not include students who are studying abroad.
Undergraduate enrollment at UW–Platteville has grown from 5,382 students in 2001–02 to 7,819 this year.
UW System enrollment dropped 0.6 percent and graduate enrollment dropped 4 percent. The largest enrollment increases were at Platteville, Madison and Whitewater, while the largest decreases were at Milwaukee and River Falls. The UW two-year campuses also lost enrollment.
UW–Platteville finished second to UW–Madison in another category: A recent study by PayScale indicates that UW–Platteville graduates can expect a positive rate of return on their investment into higher education.
UW–Platteville is the highest rated UW school in the survey except for UW-Madison.
According to the 2012 study, UW–Platteville ranks 429th out of 1,248 institutions nationwide when it comes to rate of return on in-state tuition and ranks 483 on out-of-state tuition. Among public universities nationwide, UW–Platteville ranks 134th out of 395. The rate of return, according to PayScale, is 7.9 percent annually for in-state tuition and 6.5 percent annually for non-residents.
The mid-career rank for UW–Platteville when compared to other state schools nationwide is 76th out of 452.
“Given the concern nationwide about the increasing costs of a university education, it is refreshing to learn what we have known all along — that UW-Platteville graduates can expect their investment to pay off,” said Shields.
The typical starting salary for a UW–Platteville graduate is $47,300.
PayScale is a Seattle-based compensation-data company that maintains 35 million salary profiles. All data used to produce PayScale’s College Return on Investment Package were collected from employees who successfully completed PayScale’s employee survey.
Only employees who possess a bachelor’s degree and no higher degrees are included. This means bachelor’s graduates who go on to earn a master’s degree, M.B.A., M.D., J.D., Ph.D., or other advanced degree are not included.
Complete details of the study can be found at www.payscale.com/college-education-value.
