At the Spring 2025 President’s Convocation for Loyola University, one of the topics discussed was the update on Loyola’s student enrollment. President Xavier Cole said they may achieve their Fall 2025 goal of 850 first-time undergraduate students.

 “Our recruitment data suggests that our goal of 850 may be achievable, but there is still much work to be done,” Dr. Cole said on January 28. 

During the convocation, Cole mentioned the amount of applications that have returned to pre-pandemic levels. It is 10% more than the number of students from 2024. Enrollment deposits are two times more than last year’s deposits, according to the data.

When being compared to 2018, the 2025 applications are 21% above. The enrollment deposits are 31% higher as well.

Over 5,500 students have applied for transfer and freshman admission.

These gains result from strategic investment in the Enrollment Management Division, as well as aggressive revision of the outreach and recruitment program. 

Dr. Cole said the reason the university used the enrollment data from 2018 was because it was a very difficult year that had a lot of external and internal things affecting it.

One of these influences that impacted enrollment in 2024 was a delayed roll-out in Federal Student Aid. This created a decline in applications, bumping numbers down by around 100 students compared to 2023. This created an estimate of 600 incoming students.

More information regarding student enrollment statistics and dropout rates will be discussed and finalized by the Office for Institutional Research and Effectiveness, after the official stats day meeting on Feb. 28, said Assistant Provost of student success, Liz Rainey.