Pitt enrollment, first-year applications increase for 2027 class

Pitt’s Oakland campus saw an influx of students as Pitt admitted more class of 2027 first-years than previous years. Overall, enrollment on the Pittsburgh campus continues to increase, with the undergraduate enrollment increasing from 19,927 to 20,220 from 2022 to 2023.

The target enrollment for the 2027 class was 4,545. However, the final paid deposits for the 2027 class were higher, with a total admission of 4,632 students. 

One of the largest increases was for first-year applications, with a 16.4% increase in applications between 2022 and 2023. 

Steve Wisniewski, vice provost for budget and analytics, said in a University Times article that this number is based on a variety of factors including consultation with other departments and schools on campus. 

“We go back and forth with them, what is their capacity, what does the central administration want, what do we have resources to deal with in terms of housing, lab spaces, that sort of stuff,” Wisniewski said.

Wisniewski added that the final paid deposit is not representative of the actual enrolled number of students. 

“Not all those people will actually show up on campus, but that was just under 2 percent higher than our target. So we pretty much landed on the nose,” Wisniewski said. “This is an inexact science and getting that close to your target is pretty amazing.”

The increased enrollments and applications also included an increase in the number of Black and African-American students, Hispanic students and Asian students. This comes amid some student concerns of low enrollment rates for Black students on campus. 

Additionally the number of international students dropped from 289 to 279.

While Pitt does continue to increase the number of enrolled students, its graduate enrollment rates are still lower than some of its peer universities. Public schools in the Association of American Universities have seen an overall nearly 25% increase in graduate enrollment over the past 10 years, but Pitt is down about 9.6% in the same period.