FAMU had second smallest enrollment among Florida’s public universities in Fall 2016

FAMU students leaving Lee Hall after the 2016 Founders Day Convocation

Florida A&M University had the second smallest number of students among all the public universities in Florida in Fall 2016. It had 9,614 students.

The only reason FAMU wasn’t dead last was because of Florida Polytechnic University, which has only been a university since 2014. Florida Poly was previously the University of South Florida Lakeland. There were 1,314 students at that school in Fall 2016. 

FAMU and Florida Poly were the only two universities that didn’t have an enrollment that reached five figures. 

Back in Fall 2010 under then-President James Ammons, FAMU had 13,277 students. That was the highest-ever fall enrollment. All of his freshmen classes had 3.0+ average GPAs from high school.

PLUS Loan and Pell Grant changes in 2011 led FAMU to lose about 2,000 students. The enrollment decline continued after 2014 when Elmira Mangum became the new president of FAMU even though North Carolina A&T University, North Carolina Central University and Jackson State University all three succeeded in growing their enrollments and raising their average freshman GPAs at the same time. Those three universities had enrollment bumps with freshman classes that had 3.0+ average GPAs in 2015-2016.

Mangum left FAMU with 9,614 students when she resigned in Fall 2016.

FAMU President Larry Robinson reversed the enrollment decline in Fall 2017 with 9,913 students and a freshman class that has a 3.39 average GPA. The freshman class also has an average score on the SAT that is higher than the average for high school students in Florida and the entire country.