By Sarah Brookbank

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UK has accepted a freshman class of over 5,000 students for the second consecutive year.

This year’s first-year enrollment was 5,217.

On Friday, UK President Eli Capilouto met with the Board of Trustees in Hazard, Ky., to discuss the university’s growth and plans for the future.

“The last four years, under the leadership and direction of President Capilouto and the board, we’ve been building a foundation,” UK Provost Tim Tracy said. “This foundation is to support our vision of becoming one of the premier public residential research campuses in America.”

$1.8 billion in construction has developed classrooms, housing, research and dining facilities and has drawn more students to the university, Tracy said.

“Our doors are widest for Kentuckians and no Kentuckian who meets our academic requirements is turned away,” Tracy said.

The university has a freshmen to sophomore retention rate of 82.7 percent.

“Four years ago, The Board of Trustees charted an ambitious path forward — one that focused on academic excellence in every phase of our mission, but that particularly focused on the success of students,” said Capilouto in a press release.

62 percent of UK students are residents, and 38 percent are from outside Kentucky.

The acceptance rate for in-state students is 92 percent, and 89 percent for out-of-state students.

Tracy said the university is seeing anecdotal evidence that campus renovations are working. UK had the highest number of applications this year, which Tracy said speaks to students considering UK as a top choice. The number of out-of-state students applying to UK is also at an all-time high. Their tuition is double the in-state rate.

This year more than 500 African American students enrolled, and enrollment by Hispanic students is also up.

“Again, it’s been strategic smart growth, where we’ve tried to have a class that has that diversity and has the richness of of those experiences so that the students can learn from each other from all parts of the country and the world.”

Tracy said the next step is getting the four year graduation rate up. The rate is currently 39 percent.