At a University of Iowa Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday, Brent Gage, associate vice president for enrollment management and strategy at the university, told senators the UI will have to change the way it admits students due to a 24 percent increase in undergraduate applications over the last three years.

Faculty senators were also told applications for the 2025-26 academic year are rising again, even after its second largest first-year class of 5,561 students this fall.

“We can’t just have rolling admission anymore, unless you’re an Iowa student with a test score,” Gage said. “We currently have 1,700 people on the deferred list. It’s not bad news. It means we need a little more time to make a decision.”

Rolling deadlines refer to universities reviewing applications as they are received rather than waiting for a specific deadline to begin evaluating all applications at once.

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Gage said standardized testing will become more important for the UI admissions process since going forward, it will be more difficult for a person with a GPA around 3.48 who hasn’t taken a standardized test to be admitted. 

“Our admission process will look a lot more like Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, as the applications continue to grow,” Gage said.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison reported its second-largest first-year class this year, totaling 8,516 students. The university does not have rolling admissions operating on a fixed admissions schedule, according to their website.

The increase in applications is not coming from in-state students, with Gage noting the continually stagnant number of high school graduates in Iowa.

According to the Iowa Department of Education, over the last nine years high school graduation rates have fluctuated between 32,500 and 34,500 per year.

“What’s growing is we have seen double-digit increases in all the continuous states in Texas, Colorado, California, and New York,” Gage said.

Gage said the university’s campus is at full capacity, highlighting the line running far outside Burge Market Place and packed university buses. 

“There is a point in which good enrollment with the amount of revenue gained from that enrollment is offset to a loss due to faculty, sections, and those things,” Gage said.