Students pose with Business Pete in the Business Building on Monday, the first day of class at OSU.

Spears Business enrollment soars to record numbers again

Monday, August 19, 2024

Media Contact: Terry Tush | Director, Marketing and Communications | 405-744-2703 | terry.tush@okstate.edu

The Spears School of Business has enrolled more than 1,000 freshmen for the first day of the 2024-25 school year, setting a Spears record and contributing to an Oklahoma State University milestone.

OSU announced enrollment numbers Friday, and the freshman class exceeds 5,000 students for the first time, an 8% jump from the past year. With this historic total, OSU sets a freshman enrollment record for the third straight year and reaches its goal two years early of enrolling more than 5,000 new freshmen by 2026. The official numbers will be calculated in this fall’s census, but OSU’s Stillwater and Tulsa locations are starting the school year with a combined record total enrollment of 26,805.

Reflecting OSU’s skyrocketing trend, Spears Business has a freshman class of 1,034 as of Monday. This marks an 8.27% increase from the past year, when the business school’s freshman enrollment reached a then-record 955. This year’s unprecedented freshman numbers boost Spears Business enrollment to 6,458 total students between the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, a 6.59% increase from the past year.

“The enrollment growth in the Spears School of Business has been incredible the past five years, culminating in record enrollment for this fall semester,” Dean Jim Payne said. “It is a testament to the ‘Power of Personal’ culture that has developed in Spears and has been embraced by our faculty and staff in providing high-quality academic programs and a first-rate learning environment for our students.”

The record number of undergraduate Spears Business students on the Stillwater campus includes:

5,477 undergraduate business students, the most in school history and 5.53% more than a year ago;
1,034 new freshmen, the most in the business school’s 110 years;
328 transfer students;
4,045 returning students, 6.2% more than a year ago, enhancing the university’s high retention rates.

The Spears Business graduate program, encompassing the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses, includes:

929 students, a 13.6% increase in graduate program students;
66 new graduate students at OSU-Tulsa, a 26.92% increase from the past year.

OSU maintains its spot as the state’s largest university system with an enrollment of nearly 36,000 across OSU-Stillwater, OSU-Tulsa, OSU-CHS, OSUIT and OSU-OKC. Significant areas of growth include Graduate College enrollment (4,696 total students), Native American student enrollment (3,498), online enrollment (2,601), Honors College enrollment (3,395) and nursing student enrollment (737).