Fall semester enrollment at East Carolina University has hit 20,624, an all-time record and up 6.24 percent from the previous mark of 19,412 set a year ago.

   The number includes a freshman class of 3,554 students, also a record, that boasts the highest-ever average SAT score–1038.

   The numbers were recorded on Wednesday (Sept. 4), the 10th day of fall classes and the day earmarked for compiling official enrollment totals.

   ECU has set an ambitious goal of increasing both the size and quality of its student body. The university plans to enroll about 27,500 students by the end of the decade.

   To accommodate those numbers, a comprehensive construction and renovation program is under way across the campus. The largest of those projects, the $61 million Science and Technology Building going up on the Tenth Street side of the campus, is scheduled to open for the fall semester next year. Other projects include residence and dining halls, athletics facilities and thousands of square feet of new and remodeled classrooms, laboratories, libraries and offices.

   This year’s enrollment totals, compared with last year’s (in parentheses) include:

   16,248 undergraduates (15,460 in fall 2001).

   4,376 graduate and medical students (3,952).

   18,968 on-campus students (18,174).

   1,656 distance-education students (1,238).

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